A teenage footballer hoping to join the army was shot in the head by a drug dealer for stepping on his foot at a New Year’s party in Brazil.
Kauan Pereira, 18, was at a party in the town of Queimados when he stepped on the foot of the alleged gunman, identified as De Ferrero, early Wednesday morning.
Despite Pereira apologizing, De Ferrero had the teenager escorted to the top of a nearby hill, where he was shot twice, including once in the head.
Pereira was rushed by bystanders to a Queimados emergency center and later transferred to Nova Iguaçu General Hospital in the municipality of Nova Iguaçu.
He remained in hospital while his family sought volunteers to donate blood and his condition worsened on Thursday when doctors confirmed he was brain dead.
The family was only warned on Friday morning, several media organizations report.
Brazilian news channel G1 and TV Globo reported that De Ferrero oversaw drug operations for Comando Vermelho, a notorious criminal organization founded in the prison system in the 1970s.
De Ferrero was then reportedly killed because high-ranking gang leadership was concerned about the potential consequences his actions would have on the network.
Kauan Pereira, 18, a footballer who hoped to join the army, was declared brain dead on Thursday after being shot in the head for stepping on a drug dealer’s shoe
Brazilian news media reported that the drug dealer, De Ferrero, was killed because the high-ranking gang’s leadership was concerned about the possible consequences his actions would have on the network.
Just after the arrival of the new year, Kauan Pereira received a message from the Brazilian army that he had been accepted into their paratrooper unit.
Pereira’s father, Renato Pereira, said his son announced to the family just minutes after the new year arrived that he had been accepted to join the army’s paratrooper unit.
‘He spent New Year’s Eve with us. When the year 2025 came, he received a message on his phone saying he would join a battalion to become a paratrooper,” Renato told G1.
‘My son started dancing and jumping for joy. He had two dreams: to become a footballer and a parachutist.’
Pereira was about to walk out of his house and go to a relative’s home around 3 a.m. when his father advised him to stay indoors.
“Because he was young and emotional, he said he was going to his relative’s house. I still asked, “My son, don’t go. Please don’t go.” But he is young. He’s gone,’ Renato said.
The grieving father said there were several witness accounts of how Pereira was killed.
“What we know is that the bandit shot my son at close range. He shot a studious boy,” Renato said.