A relative places his hand on the head of school shooting victim Caio Oliveira during a collective wake for those who died in Suzano, greater Sao Paulo area, Brazil, March 14. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) A relative places his hand on the head of school shooting victim Caio Oliveira during a collective wake for those who died in Suzano, greater Sao Paulo area, Brazil, March 14. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
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Two young men who stormed their former school in southern Brazil armed with a gun, crossbows and axes, killing seven people, were trying to emulate the 1999 Columbine attack in Colorado and had been planning the assault for months, police said.

Friends and former classmates told investigators that 17-year-old Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and 25-year-old Henrique de Castro were obsessed with the attack on Columbine High School, Sao Paulo civil police director Ruy Ferraz told a news conference. He said the pair had been planning the attack since at least November.

Ferraz said the acquaintances said they didn't believe the attack would actually happen, or feared that telling anyone would make them targets.