Leandro Lo: Funeral held for killed Jiu-Jitsu champion

Leandro Lo, one of the greatest Jiu-Jitsu champions of all time, has been buried after he was shot in the head by a man in a club in São Paulo on Sunday.

There were emotional scenes as friends and relatives gathered for the wake of Brazil's eight-time world champion.

Many followed his mother's request to attend the ceremony wearing a gi, the uniform worn in Jiu-Jitsu.

The suspect in the shooting, an off-duty police officer, has handed himself in and is in police custody.

The shooting happened in a club in the south of São Paulo, where the 33-year-old Lo was attending a concert along with friends.

According to witnesses, a lone man approached his table, took a bottle from it and waved it in a menacing manner.

A lawyer for the Lo family said that the Jiu-Jitsu champion pinned the man to the ground to immobilise him.

His friends then helped both men get up and "at that exact moment, the guy allegedly turned around, pulled out a gun and shot Leandro in the head," lawyer Ivan Siqueira Junior told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Lo was taken to hospital where he was declared brain dead. A murder investigation has been opened.

His mother paid tribute to her son in a post on Instagram, external, where she felt that "a part of her was missing" after "my hero" was killed.

"I will hold on to the good memories, of which there are many. You made me feel like the most loved mother in the world," she added.

The priest at Lo's funeral, Father Luciano Borges, spoke out against gun violence at the ceremony. "The one who kills, never wins," he said.

He also asked for a round of applause for those he called "fighters for a good cause", Lo's fellow Jiu-Jitsu fighters, who had turned out in their gis.

Lo's younger sister Amanda, 29, said the family was planning to set up an institute named after her brother to carry out social work.

His body was carried in an open coffin from the chapel to the cemetery with his fellow athletes forming a guard of honour to pay their respects.

According to Folha newspaper, while the coffin was lowered into the ground, some shouted "he's the champion".

Friends said Lo had been training for a competition in the US when he was killed.