Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Rifle Shooting and Shotput Events To Be Highlighted At the Rio 2016 Games

Drug traffickers shot down a police helicopter and killed two officers in a burst of drug-based violence just two weeks after the city won the 2016 Olympic games. Three suspected drug traffickers were also killed.

Bullets flying from the Morro dos Macacos ("Monkey Hill" in Portuguese) slum in northern Rio de Janeiro hit the police helicopter pilot in the leg as he hovered above a clash between rival drug factions, causing him to lose control and crash.

Rio mayor Eduardo Paes tried to downplay the wave of violence that has underscored what many have criticized about the selection of the Brazilian city.

“We never hid our problems during the bid process — we always told people we had problems and we are facing the problems,” Paes told the Global Sports Industry Summit in London. “We still have a lot to do, we have a long way to go and what [has] happened showed that.”

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