SAO PAULO — Close to 1,000 people attended a memorial service Wednesday for the people gunned down inside a cathedral in southeastern Brazil, and authorities said the toll of dead had risen to five.
Investigators said they were still trying to determine what led 49-year-old Euler Fernando Grandolpho to attack worshippers after Tuesday’s midday service at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Campinas.
After taking a bullet in the ribs in a firefight with police Grandolpho shot himself in the head, authorities said.
Somber, teary-eyed faithful sat quietly as Monsignor Rafael Capelato said, “Through prayers and solidarity we are supporting each other in this time of suffering.”
Pope Francis sent a message to the Archdiocese of Campinas in which he urged that “forgiveness and love prevail over hate and vengeance.”
After the service. the Mario Gatti hospital reported that one of the four wounded in the shooting had died, adding to the four who died earlier.
Grandolpho, a systems analyst, was not a member of the church, authorities said. According to public records Grandolpho had held various jobs with government entities, including a stint as an assistant to the prosecutor in the public ministry in Sao Paulo.
Inspector Jose Henrique Vantura told reporters that Grandolpho lived as a recluse with his widowed father in a gated community and that he was once treated for depression.
Rita Franco, a former girlfriend, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that Grandolpho was an “extremely bright person.
President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has promised to crack down on violence, in part by loosening gun laws so more civilians could arm themselves.
Among other things, Brazil’s gun control laws require people wanting to buy a weapon to explain why they need a gun.
