Policeman disguised as a cameraman rescues a young girl taken hostage.
Marcelo de Jesús Bastos, 20, was trying to rob a clothing store in São Paulo, Brazil, on October 11, 1990, but was cornered by the police.
A police sergeant disguised as a television cameraman rescued a 14-year-old saleswoman who had been held hostage for three hours by a robber who held a gun to her head, a police spokesman said.
Marcelo de Jesús Bastos, 20, and a friend entered a downtown sports clothing store to steal tennis shoes, shorts and T-shirts in São Paulo, Brazil, on October 11, 1990.
They panicked when police patrolling the area entered the store. Bastos took a young girl who worked as a salesperson, identified as Luciana Silva Oliveira, hostage, while her friend fled the scene.
Bastos, pointing a gun at Miss Oliveira's head, left the store but was cornered by more than 50 police officers in front of a nearby Pentecostal church.
After several hours of trying to negotiate with the criminal, police sergeant Claudio Manoel Falcao de Figueiredo, disguised as a television cameraman, slowly approached Bastos. Seeing that the gunman's gun was not cocked, he threw the camera at him and grabbed the gun.
Miss Oliveira was rescued unharmed.