A newspaper editor known for his exposure of crime and corruption cases was shot dead in northern Rio, police have said.

Late Tuesday, assailants pumped 41 bullets into 45-year old Jose Roberto Ornelas de Lemos, editor of the community newspaper Hora H, a police statement said yesterday.

“The case is under investigation,” the statement said adding that police hoped to apprehend the killers with the aid of surveillance footage.

News reports said Ornelas de Lemos, who ran a daily serving a low-income community in the northern Baixada Fluminense suburb, was gunned down as he was having a beer.

The victim had received frequent death threats, according to his brother, Luciano Ornelas de Lemos.

Hora H “is rather polemical, highly critical of police, criminals and politicians,” the brother was quoted as saying on the website of the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo.

Four other Brazilian journalists have been killed this year, according to Reporters without Borders.

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