Sniper mistakes drill for gun

A MAN using a power drill on his balcony in a Rio de Janeiro slum was shot dead by police who mistook his handyman tool for an Uzi submachine gun, Brazilian media reported on Thursday.

'It'd be funny if they thought I was waving a gun around,' were the last words of Helio Ribeiro to his wife inside, local media said, as he spotted a police unit close by looking for drug gang members in the tense neighbourhood.

Moments later a police sniper's bullet turned his joke into fatal reality, piercing the supermarket manager's left arm and lung.

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