A motorcycle-riding assailant shot Carvalho,
editor and owner of the news website Última
Hora News, at his home in
Campo Grande, capital of Mato Grosso do Sul state, according to news reports. Carvalho often
covered local corruption, news reports said.
The journalist and his wife were arriving
home at night when the gunman, riding on the back of a motorcycle, shot him at
least three times. Carvalho’s wife retrieved a gun the journalist carried, but
the weapon was locked and she could not return fire, according to news reports. The gunman
and the motorcycle driver fled the scene.
Carvalho, a former military police
officer, frequently wrote critical reports about police and politicians,
according to Última Hora News.
The website reported that the
journalist was authorized to carry a gun because he had been threatened and had
survived an earlier assassination attempt. Police officials told reporters that
Carvalho had been the subject of many lawsuits related to his reporting.
His most recent story, published on the
day of his murder, accused an unnamed military police official of intimidating local
citizens. Divino Furtado Mendonça, the municipal police chief, told reporters
that investigators were focusing on Carvalho’s journalistic work as the likely motive,
according to news reports.