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A Teen's Killing Stirs Black Lives Matter Protests in Brazil

Associated Press

   RIO DE JANEIRO - When Rafaela Matos saw police helicopters over her
   favela and heard gunshots, she fell to her knees and asked God to
   protect her son, João Pedro. Then she called the boy to make sure he
   was OK.
   "Be calm," João Pedro wrote back, explaining that he was at his aunt's
   house and everything was fine, Rafaela told The Associated Press.
   Minutes after he sent the message, police burst in and shot the
   14-year-old in the stomach with a high-caliber rifle at close range.
   João Pedro Matos Pinto was one of more than 600 people killed by
   police in the state of Rio de Janeiro in the first months of this year.
   That's almost double the number of people killed by police over the
   same period in the entire U.S., which has 20 times Rio's population.
   Like João Pedro, most of those killed in Rio were black or biracial
   and lived in the city's poorest neighborhoods, or favelas.
   WATCH: Which countries spend the most on policing?

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