Alexander Freitas de Barbosa

Alexander Freitas de Barbosa was a Brazilian who killed five persons and wounded 12 others at a carnival in Recife, Brazil, on December 24, 2001 before being subdued and arrested. He was sentenced to 211 years in prison, where he only served three years.

Background
On September 15, 2001, de Barbosa had coincidently purchased an suicide bomber costume, days after the September 11, 2001 attacks. de Barbosa, questioned by the salesman if he was aware to the attacks, he said that he was not. de Barbosa had previously a car accident on February 3, 2001 which left him in coma until September 13, 2001 where he was fully recovered. His mom, Maria Carla Barbosa, traumatized after the attacks, did not tell his son anything about the events.

On September 21, 2001, de Barbosa, who had left for carnival, with a suicide bomber costume with fake explosives, was eventually grabbed by three policemen and arrested after questioning, de Barbosa, was erratically confused with a terrorist, because he had a long beard and showed very strange behavior in the carnival because of his recently coma release, de Barbosa was sent to prison, where he stayed for over 1 month.

On October 6, 2001 Barbosa was released, he showed signs of violence to his family, stating that he was wanting to kill himself, and that he was wanting to do revenge.

On December 2, 2001 Barbosa was put on a psychiatric hospital, where he was put on sedatives mulitiple times. On December 5, 2001 he attacked a patient with a wood plank.

Murders
On December 24, 2001, when people were celebrating on a crowded carnival, Barbosa lured five of them into a abandoned church, claiming that he was going to sell drugs for them, and stabbed four of them fatally in the neck, while a fiveth died from his wounds in hospital.

Barbosa then began running fast, stabbing every person he encountered, after stabbing and wounding 12 of them, Barbosa was shot by a police officer, where he was preparing to stab the police officers,

Barbosa was seriously wounded and was sent to the Getúlio Vargas Hospital da Esperança hospital, where he stayed until August 9, 2003.

Aftermath
A memorial for the victims was created on March 29, 2003. While the mayor of the site built a maternity clinic on January 21, 2002 called Mães de Recife for a wounded pregnant women and for others women that were abused.

Barbosa was sent to home on August 9, 2003.

One of Barbosa brothers, Vitor Manuel Barbosa, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head on May 6, 2004.

A movie, called Carnaval was released on April 4, 2009.