Brazilian city council member found shot to death in Rio state

Brasmlia: A council member from a city in Rio de Janeiro state was found shot to death on Sunday, authorities said.

A military police patrol found Wendel Coelho's bullet-riddled body in his car in the town of Japeri, where the 26-year-old was a member of the municipal council for the leftist Workers Party.

Police have launched a homicide investigation.

The killing came shortly after the one-year anniversary of the high-profile murder of Rio de Janeiro city council member Marielle Franco, a rising star in leftist politics.

Franco, a gay black woman who had denounced police abuses, was shot to death along with her driver in central Rio on March 14, 2018 in a brazen attack that shocked Brazilians.

Two days before the anniversary of Franco's death, authorities arrested two former police officers accused of carrying out the killing.

Investigators have not specified a motive for that killing or said whether it was ordered by someone else.