Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni

Gabriel Rodrigues Castiglioni (born approximately 2006, Aracruz, Espírito Santo, Brazil) was 16 when he attacked two schools in Aracruz on November 25, 2022, killing four people and wounding eleven. He wore military-style camouflage, a bulletproof vest, a skull mask associated with Atomwaffen Division, and a homemade swastika armband, and had been active in online neo-Nazi accelerationist communities including Terrorgram Collective channels. In the prosecution of Dallas Humber in the Eastern District of California, DOJ prosecutors documented that on or around October 23, 2022 - one month before the attack - Humber and Matthew Robert Allison had discussed in a secret Telegram chat a Brazilian contact planning "a racially motivated school attack in Brazil." Prosecutors attributed the Aracruz attack to Humber's guidance, and Humber subsequently created Terrorgram "saint cards" for Castiglioni and referred to him as "her kid." Castiglioni was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention - the maximum penalty available for minors under Brazilian law at the time of sentencing in December 2022.¹

The Aracruz Attacks

On November 25, 2022, Castiglioni attacked Escola Estadual Primo Bitti first, then Escola Praia de Coqueiral. Four people were killed: student Selena Zagrillo (12), who was shot while hiding under a desk, teacher Maria da Penha Pereira de Melo Banhos (48), who was attempting to shield students, Cybelle Passos Bezerra Lara (45), and Flavia Amoss Merçon Leonardo (38). Eleven additional people were wounded.

Castiglioni had been active on social media displaying admiration for Nazi ideology and claimed to have begun planning the attack in 2019 following a period of bullying, placing his radicalization in the same post-Christchurch window as many other Terrorgram-linked cases. No separate written manifesto was publicly confirmed; his documented online activity constituted his ideological record.²

Terrorgram Connection

The Humber prosecution established the most direct documented link between Terrorgram and the Aracruz attack. Court documents confirmed that on approximately October 23, 2022, Humber and Allison discussed a Brazilian contact's plans in a secret Telegram channel. Humber's subsequent creation of saint cards for Castiglioni - and her characterization of him as "her kid" - indicates a relationship extending beyond passive inspiration to something closer to the mentorship dynamic she had also maintained with prospective attackers in other countries.

The Aracruz attack is listed in Humber's sentencing documents as the most lethal Terrorgram-attributed attack to that point. It is also cited explicitly in Matthew Althorpe's Canadian sentencing (March 27, 2026) as one of the attacks his publications helped inspire.¹

Brazilian Legal Outcome

Brazilian courts sentenced Castiglioni to three years in juvenile detention in December 2022, representing the maximum penalty available under Brazilian law for a minor at the time. He completed the sentence and was placed on supervised release by November 2025.²