“Two police officers were arrested for direct and effective participation in the crime,” said Marcus Vinícius Braga, Rio de Janeiro’s state police secretary. “With these arrests, we get close to solving the crime.”

Franco’s killing sparked worldwide protests and made her a global symbol of police oppression.

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She was driving home on the night of March 14, 2018, after speaking to a group of women about black empowerment when she was struck by nine police-issue bullets. Her driver, Anderson Gomes, also was killed.

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Investigators now think that Ronnie Lessa, a retired military police officer, fired the shots. Élcio Vieira de Queiroz, a former police officer who was expelled from the force, is suspected of having driven the car.

Both men were arrested early Tuesday morning in Rio.

Prosecutors said the crime was meticulously planned in the three months leading up to the killing. Police are now investigating whether the suspects were hired to kill Franco on behalf of someone else.

“It is a weight that is starting to lift off my shoulders,” Ágatha Reis, the widow of Gomes, Franco’s driver, said of the arrests. Still, she told local media, “I cannot be completely at peace. They still have to tell us who ordered these killings. It doesn’t end here.”

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Armed paramilitary groups made up of current and former police officers emerged in Rio in the early 2000s, creating an army of guns for hire. They control several neighborhoods in the city and are known for extorting residents for access to basic services, such as gas or cable, often killing those who stand in their way.

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Although other politicians have also gone after these groups, Franco’s supporters say she was targeted in part because killing a black woman was more likely to go unpunished. For a year after her death, the hashtag #WhoKilledMarielle spread throughout social media, as Brazilians urged police to investigate.

Despite Brazil often presenting itself as post-racial, racial inequality is rampant, with a predominantly white elite and lower income groups more likely to be darker skinned. Black Brazilians are three times as likely to die at the hands of police than their white counterparts, according to recent studies.

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On Tuesday morning after the arrests, the hashtag changed to #WhoOrderedMarielle’sMurder.

“It is a decisive step, but the case has not been solved,” tweeted Marcelo Freixo, a congressman from Rio and a political ally of Franco.