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$24m lottery winner shot dead
07/01/2007 22:40 - (SA)
Rio de Janeiro - A handicapped merchant, who won a $24m lottery jackpot a year ago, was shot dead on Sunday during a mugging near his store in Rio de Janeiro, said authorities.
Rene Sena, 54, who did have have the use of his legs, was shot while resisting two motorbike-riding robbers who made off with a sackful of money he was carrying, police said.
Sena's murder barely a year after winning the massive lottery purse highlighted Rio's notorious standing as Brazil's murder capital, accounting for one-fifth of the country's total homicides.
Rio de Janeiro's new governor, Sergio Cabral, has vowed a major crackdown on crime in the state and its capital.
Meanwhile, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last week granted a request for army troops to help local law enforcement.
- AFP
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