A three-year-old girl who was shot by police at a traffic stop in Brazil died this Saturday, authorities reported, in a case that was condemned by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Heloisa dos Santos Silva died of cardiorespiratory arrest after nine days in the hospital for gunshot wounds, reported the health department of Duque de Caxias, near Rio de Janeiro, where she was being treated.
Relatives and witnesses told investigators that the minor and her family were returning home by car on September 7, Independence Day in Brazil, when the federal highway police signaled them to stop.
The officers opened fire on the vehicle, wounding the girl in the neck and shoulder.
The father told authorities he was stopping the car when police fired, according to federal prosecutors, who on Friday requested the arrest of the three officers involved.
The police indicated that they were pursuing the vehicle because it was registered as stolen.
Lula condemned the shooting in a message on X, formerly Twitter, and said that the minor “died from shots fired by those who are supposed to protect the people.”
“This simply cannot happen,” he said.
Silva is the eighth girl shot dead this year in the Rio metropolitan area, according to the monitoring group Fogo Cruzado, three of them in police operations.
