Mateus da Costa Meira

Mateus da Costa Meira (born April 4, 1975) is a Brazilian mass shooter and former medical student who killed 3 people at a cinema in São Paulo on November 3, 1999. He was arrested and sentenced to 48 years in Brazil, but in 2009 he was moved to a psychiatric facility where he remains to this day. He is diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder.

Background
Meira was born in Salvador and his father is a doctor. At the day of the crime, 24-year-old Meira pursued a medical career in São Paulo and was only two weeks from graduating. He owned a pistol, played videogames considered violent (such as Duke Nukem 3D), was involved in software piracy and spread of internet viruses, and possessed cocaine and crack in his apartment. He was described as shy, introverted and apathetic, but according to other sources he only started to exhibit such traits months before the attack, when he was getting closer to drug traffickers.

Even already owning a pistol, he bought a submachine gun before the shooting.

The crime
He entered the cinema of the Morumbi shopping mall at about 10:00 pm and bought a ticket for a night session. He entered the room where Fight Club was being displayed, stayed in the room for 15 minutes and then went to the toilet, where he shot the mirror. He returned to the room and shot a group of people, 3 of which died (1 at the scene and 2 latter at the hospital). He was stopped by another viewer and caught in the act by the police.

Trial and imprisonment
Meira was initially sentenced to 120 and a half years of imprisonment, but this sentence was later reduced to 48 as he was not considered fully imputable because of his mental illness. 10 years thereafter, in 2009, he tried to kill a prison inmate with scissors and was put again into trial. The final decision was to send him to a mental hospital in his hometown, where he remains to this day.