By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-03 22:46:50 | Updated at 2025-01-05 20:33:22
1 day ago
A teen soccer player who had hopes of joining the military 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 shooter, identified as De Ferrero, during the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Despite Pereira apologizing, De Ferrero had the teen escorted to the top of a neighborhood hill, where he was shot twice, including once in the head.
Pereira was rushed by bystanders to a Queimados emergency care center and was later transferred to Nova Iguaçu General Hospital in the municipality of Nova Iguaçu.
He remained hospitalized as his family sought volunteers to donate blood and his conditioned worsened Thursday, when doctors confirmed he was brain dead.
The family was not alerted until Friday morning, multiple media organizations reported.
Brazilian news outlet G1 and TV Globo reported that De Ferrero oversaw drug operations for Comando Vermelho, a notorious criminal organization that was founded in the prison system in the 1970s.
De Ferrero was then reportedly killed because the high-ranking gang leadership was worried about the potential repercussions his actions would bring upon the network.
Kauan Pereira, 18, a soccer player who had hopes of joining the military, was confirmed brain dead Thursday after he was shot in the head for stepping on a drug dealer's shoe
Brazilian news outlets reported that the drug dealer, De Ferrero, was killed because high-ranking gang leadership was worried about the potential repercussions his actions would bring upon the network
Just after the arrival of the new year, Kauan Pereira received a message from the Brazilian army that he had been accepted to join their paratrooper unit
Pereira's father, Renato Pereira, said his son announced to the family that he was accepted to join the army's paratrooper unit just minutes after the new year arrived.
'He spent New Year's Eve with us. When 2025 came around, he received a message on his phone saying that he was going to join a battalion to be a paratrooper,' Renato told G1.
'My son started dancing and jumping for joy. He had two dreams: to be a football player and a paratrooper.'
Pereira was about to walk out of his home and head out to a family member's residence around 3am when his father advised him to stay in.
'Since he was young and emotional, he said he was going to his relative's house. I still asked, "My little son, don't go. Please don't go." But he is young. He went,' Renato said.
The grieving father said that there were several witness accounts over how Pereira was murdered.
'What we know is that the bandit shot my son at point-blank range. He shot a studious boy,' Renato said.
