Brazil TV practical joke shoot turns into shooting

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) -- A "Candid Camera" style TV hoax on Brazilian TV ended up as a real drama with an actor arrested on attempted murder charges after shooting a man in the leg, police said on Wednesday.

According to police officials, during the filming of an episode of humoristic program "Te Vi na TV", which means "I saw you on TV", the RedeTV! crew asked a security guard to take part in the show. The program is modeled after "Candid Camera", where people are generally filmed reacting unaware to organized practical jokes.

RedeTV warned the guard he would be filmed and told him to save a woman from her furious husband. What they did not tell the guard was that the "husband" would be armed with a gun.

Faced with the weapon and a convincing performance by the muscular actor, the guard tried to escape, and it was then when the actor pulled the trigger.

"The problem was that the gun is a real fire weapon, and the guard got wounded in the leg," said a duty police officer in Osasco on the outskirts of Brazil's city of Sao Paulo, where the shoot -- and shooting -- occurred earlier this week.

Police said they may open another investigation because the TV station had borrowed the gun from a military police officer. The actor has pleaded innocent, saying he thought the gun was a fake.

The guard has hired a lawyer and was likely to sue the TV company, the police official added. RedeTV! officials were not available for comment.

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