RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ― A police officer sitting on a motorcycle can be seen on an Associated Press video firing what appeared to be a live pistol round at anti-World Cup protesters Sunday near Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana soccer stadium.
During the small but violent and chaotic protest that played out about 1.5 kilometers from the stadium, a second man, who was in street clothes but identified himself as a police officer, also pulled a pistol and fired two shots into the air. Pedro Dantas, a spokesman for the Rio de Janeiro security secretariat that oversees all security forces, said in a phone interview that if authorities verify the accuracy of the video, “we’ll immediately open an investigation into the incident.”