SAO PAULO, Nov. 20 -- Caetano Carani, the vacationing Brazilian businessman who videotaped the Oct. 29 sniper attack on the White House, died from what may have been the 'flesh-eating' streptococcus bacteria, his doctors said Sunday. Carani was scheduled to have returned to the U.S. next month to testify in gunman Francisco Duran's trial. The businessman, who taped the attack while vactioning in the Washington, died 'suddenly and mysteriously' on Saturday after returning from the United States on Nov. 11. 'Carani appeared with Friday with an acute, rapid and violent infection due to no apparent cause, and died shortly afterwards,' Dr. Fabio Linardi said. 'In 14 years of practicing medicine, I have never seen anything like it. The bacteria was extremely violent and aggressive,' Linardi said. While an inital autoposy indicates the cause of death was an 'acute and generalized gangrene,' doctors believe the bacterial agent may be the same strain of streptococcus 'A' bacteria that appeared in England earlier this year. Carani's brief U.S. vacation brought the businessman a quick chance at fame. Carani was walking near the White House on Oct. 29 with a video camara he had recently purchased, when young Francisco Duran began firing at the building with a semi-automatic assault rifle. Wanda Belfort, Carani's widow, said he was preparing to return to the United States to testify at Duran's trial, before he died. FBI agents were also scheduled to interview Carani at his home in Itapetininga, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo.
Belfort said her husband planned to turn over the original copy of the video to the U.S. government. It is unknown whether Carani was infected by the bacteria during his visit to the United States, and doctors said they could find no wounds which would have allowed the bacteria to enter Carani's body. Tissue samples from the body have been sent to research centers in Brazil and the United States in an attempt to positively identify the bacteria.
