BRAZIL

A police officer due to go on trial next month on charges of participating in an August 1993 massacre in which 21 residents of a Rio de Janeiro shantytown were gunned down was shot and killed, police said. Luciano Francino dos Santos, 32, was found dead Thursday in his car. Santos is one of 56 police officers who stand accused of involvement in the killings on the night of Aug. 30, 1993, when about 20 hooded gunmen dressed in black and armed with automatic weapons and shotguns opened fire on Vigario Geral’s residents to avenge the deaths of four policemen. Four years after the massacre only one of the police officers accused has been tried and convicted.