A police commander in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia was gunned down on Wednesday while giving a radio interview from his car via cellphone, authorities said.
The interview, which was being broadcast live, was interrupted by the sound of gunfire and the police commander’s wife screamed for help. The people conducting the interview warned listeners that obviously something serious had happened and a few minutes later they were able to confirm that the commander had been murdered.
The victim was Clayton Leao, the chief of the 18th precinct in Camacari, one of the largest cities in Bahia, who was in charge of investigations of drug trafficking groups.
Leao was discussing a drug trafficking case in his interview with Lider FM radio when his remarks were interrupted by the screams of a woman.
“My God! For the love of God! Help!” screamed the woman.
“Some thing serious happened. He was conversing live with me and suddenly we hear that desperate woman. We need to know what happened. Attention, Civil Police, he was speaking with us from the Cascalheira highway in Arembepe,” said radio host Raimundo Rui while explaining the interruption of the interview to listeners.
Authorities said Leao, who had pulled his vehicle over to the side of the road to be able to speak on his cellphone, was shot by two men who were travelling in another automobile who apparently had followed the officer.
Police said they did not know what the motive for the crime was or who the killers were.
