New information has come to light over the foiled terrorist attack at Lady Gaga’s free Copacabana Beach concert last Saturday in Brazil.
One of the suspects has revealed their motives for targeting the celebrated artist’s biggest show of her career, dubbed ‘Mayhem On The Beach’.
A crowd of an estimated 2.5 million people gathered on the beach near the Belmond Copacabana Palace Hotel for Gaga’s first Brazilian show since 2012.
On Sunday (4 May), the Civil Police of Rio De Janeiro State said that they managed to thwart the bomb attack on the show and had arrested two people after the suspects had allegedly “recruited individuals, including minors, to carry out co-ordinated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails”.
The police operation, dubbed "Operation Fake Monster", was based on a tip from Rio De Janeiro’s state police intelligence. Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio police, said authorities believed the suspects sought to target Brazil’s LGBTQ community.
A Brazilian judge on Monday ordered the arrest of one man suspected of being involved in an alleged plot. Judge Fabiana Pagel of the Rio Grande do Sul state court did not name the suspect in her ruling, but said he is a man investigated by Rio de Janeiro police as the alleged mastermind of the plot.
Now, Brazilian authorities have shared new details, reporting that a third suspect had been planning to execute a “satanist ritual by killing a child or baby” at the concert.
Per a CNN report, authorities claim the suspect believes Lady Gaga is a Satanist, and wanted to “respond in the same way”.
The suspect was arrested and charged with terrorism and inducing crime.
Another suspect was arrested in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul for illegal possession of a firearm, while more than a dozen search and seizure warrants have been carried out across the states of Rio De Janeiro, Mato Grosso, Rio Grande Do Sul and São Paulo.
Lady Gaga’s ‘The MAYHEM Ball’ tour is underway and heads to Europe end of September, with dates in London, Stockholm, Milan, Barcelona, Berlin, Lyon and Paris.
