The attack occurred on the night of August 5th, 1954, in front of Lacerda's residence at Rua Tonelero, 180, in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro.

The attack led to the death of Air Force Major Rubens Florentino Vaz and wounded municipal guard Sálvio Romeiro.

After a rally held on the night of 4 August 1954 in the courtyard of Colégio São José, the journalist went back home along with his 15-year old son, Sérgio, in the car of Major Rubens Florentino Vaz.

Sálvio Romeiro, a local guard who heard the gunfire, came to investigate but was also shot; he was, however, able to write down the license plate of the escape vehicle.

The taxi driver, Nelson Raimunmdo de Souza, knowing that his vehicle was identified, decided to present himselft to a police station.

At dawn, the police published an official statement to the press, with the content of the testimony of driver Nelson Raimundo and affirming that they had determined to carry out several steps in the search of Climério.

[9] The Air Force high command assumed the investigations on 8 August, same that when Gregório Fortunato, accused to be the main assailant, confessed his participation.

Faced with resignation requests which began to increase, on 23 August, the president met with his ministers in Catete Palace, in order to analyze the political status.

The official story, reviewed by the popular jury that convicted the crime authors in 1956, keeps being contested by people who point to many inconsistencies in the investigation and questions without answers.

[6][13] One of the main motivators of doubts would be the criminal inquiry, written in an excessive anti-Vargas bias and full of expressions such as "cowardly attack" and "lying testimony", among others.