A nine-year-old boy who dreamed of one day playing soccer in Brazil was shot dead along with his father and cousin after gunmen burst into his birthday party in an attack sparked by an alleged drug-trafficking dispute, police said. .
Images on social media showed friends and family singing to Heitor Moreira moments before three men opened fire at his home in the southeastern town of Vespasiano.
The boy, his father Felipe Moreira, 26, and his cousin, Layza de Oliveira, 11, were pronounced dead at the scene.
De Oliveira was shot twice, Heitor Moreira was shot four times and Felipe Moreira was shot 12 times, according to the Minas Gerais Military Police.
A 13-year-old girl, her 41-year-old mother and a 19-year-old girl were injured by the gunshot and were rushed to Risole Neves hospital.
Nine-year-old Heitor Moreira, who dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player, was shot dead along with his father Felipe Moreira and his cousin Layza de Oliveira, 11, at his birthday party in Vespasiano, Brazil, on Thursday evening.
Nine-year-old Heitor Moreira attended a soccer academy operated by Brazilian club Atlético Mineiro.
Layza de Oliveira, 11, was among three people who were shot dead after two gunmen opened fire at her cousin’s birthday party in southeastern Brazil on Thursday. She was shot twice
Heitor Moreira’s grandmother, Izaltina Moreira, said G1 According to a media outlet, the gunmen arrived in a car and two men got out while guests were leaving the property’s gate when they started shooting.
«One got out of the car and the other stayed at the door. The one who came out started shooting without looking at who was shooting, he started shooting at everyone,” he said.
Police records showed that Felipe Moreira and his family had previously been threatened by drug traffickers in the Belo Horizonte area.
Felipe Moreira was at odds with the main drug traffickers, who were angry with him for refusing to transport the drugs they supplied him because he received them from another distributor.
Because of the threats, said Izaltina Moreira Rhythm newspaper that the family opposed holding a celebration for their grandson.
“My son was being threatened with death, he’s involved in a crime, so we didn’t want to have a party,” she said. ‘We only held the celebration because the children asked for it a lot. “I even made a video thanking God for that family moment and we couldn’t imagine this could happen.”
Minas Gerais Military Police said the shooting was sparked by a dispute between drug traffickers, including Felipe Moreira, who was shot to death along with his son Felipe Moreira, 9, and the boy’s cousin, Layza de Oliveira, 11. years.
Felipe Moreira was seen on video singing alongside friends and family at the party to celebrate his ninth birthday on Thursday night.
Felipe Moreira had trained with the Atlético Mineiro academy
One of the suspects, Yago Pereira, 23, was shot in the leg and chest and was taken to an urgent care center and later found on Friday at the Contagem Municipal Hospital, 37 kilometers away, in the town of Contagem.
He has been charged with three counts of murder and is in police custody at the medical center.
The hospital issued a statement indicating that Pereira was in “stable” condition.
Police are still searching for two other suspects, including 26-year-old Agnes Santos.
“They came in shooting, without worrying about whether it was a party or if there were children,” the head of the Minas Gerais Military Police, Arley Santos, told the newspaper O Tempo.
Heitor Moreira attended Atlético Mineiro’s academy and trained with the club’s Under-14 development team.
‘My grandson dreamed of playing football and that will no longer be the case. They killed a child out of cowardice,” said Izaltina Moreira.
“They had already shot at our door, they wanted us to leave the neighborhood, but doing something like that… Such a monstrosity was not necessary.”