Brazilian police said Tuesday it was investigating the murder of six members of the same family in Rio de Janeiro, in which the only survivor was a seven-month old baby.
According to Brazilian press reports, the massacre related to a settling of scores between drug traffickers.
They named 19-year-old Bruno de Souza, known as “Indio,” as the primary target of the assassins.
The slaughter took place overnight between Monday and Tuesday in Mangaratiba, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Rio.
Rio police would only confirm the investigation into the deaths of de Souza, his 22-year-old partner, a 37-year-old woman and her 33-year-old partner, as well as their two children, aged 16 and 18.
According to Extra newspaper, the mother of one of the two murdered women said she had found the crying baby on a couch among the bullet-ridden bodies.
Until Monday night’s bloodshed, the town of Mangaratiba, with a population of 30,000 people, was best known for being the place where football superstar Neymar went to recover in a luxury villa from a February operation on a broken foot.
The whole country held its breath waiting to see if he would recover in time to play at the World Cup.
Just two years after hosting the Olympic Games, Rio has plunged into a security crisis, with daily gun battles caused by rival drug gangs and the often heavy-handed intervention of local police.
In February, President Michel Temer brought in the army to maintain law and order in Rio’s notorious slums, but to little effect.
Shootings have increased by 36 percent since then, according to a report by one research group.
