Rio Police, Russian embassy disagree on details of fatality

The Russian diplomatic service has moved to distance itself from the killing of an armed robber near the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, which was initially attributed to an unnamed vice-consul who was travelling in the area with his wife and daughter.

Yesterday in Rio, a man shot and killed a mugger who tried to rob him while he was stuck in traffic.

In a statement, Rio’s 31st Military Police Battalion, which investigated the incident, said Braga acted quickly pulling the man inside the vehicle before taking his revolver and shooting him.

Unconfirmed reports on social media even said the diplomat had used jiu-jitsu to disarm the robber.

A spokesman for the Rio’s homicide police said, “The man involved is a lawyer and also the vice-consul of Russian Federation”.

The local media outlet Globo reports that Mr Braga is well-trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and was travelling in the auto with his family. Two gunmen in motorcycles attacked, media said.

“The vice consul got into a physical struggle with the assailant and during the fight the aggressor’s weapon fired shots”, police said in a statement. The homicide unit opened an investigation. “He is Brazilian and a native of Rio de Janeiro”, the Daily Mail quoted a spokesman as saying. It was the latest high profile incident reported in a city where 85,000 police and soldiers have been deployed to keep the peace during the Games.

Russia, already at the centre of a state-run doping scandal in which dozens of its athletes have been banned from competing in the Games, was quick to deny any link to the death. Overall, more than 100 Russians have been excluded, including 67 in track and field.

Zhukov added: “I think there is no other team that is so clean and so carefully controlled than the Russian one”.