SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) – Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the country must compensate victims of stray bullets during military and law enforcement operations.
The ruling means that the state can be held civilly liable for death or injury resulting from police or military operations, even if forensic reports are inconclusive.
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The country’s highest court ruled in a case stemming from the 2015 killing of a man by a stray bullet during a military operation in Rio de Janeiro’s impoverished Mare neighborhood. The court ordered the federal government to pay 300,000 reais ($60,000) to his family, who will also receive a lifetime pension and pay for his funeral expenses.
Police drive past residents on a bulldozer used to remove road barricades during a security operation against organized crime in the Maré Complex favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 9, 2023. On Thursday, April 12, 2024, the Brazilian Supreme Court issued its decision. states that the state must compensate victims of stray bullets during military and law enforcement operations. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File)
“The risk of death by stray bullets and violent firearms is a recurring threat in this country. Efforts are being made to reverse this pattern of violence, but no one, including children, will be spared,” said sociologist Sue Da Paz. said Institute Coordinator Christina Neme. A non-profit organization that monitors public safety.
It added that Brazil will record more than 47,000 murders in 2022, with nearly 14% of them committed by police. The rate is even higher in Rio de Janeiro state, where nearly 30% of murders are committed by police.
Fogo Cruzado, a non-profit organization that reports real-time on gun violence in Brazil, has recorded 1,195 deaths and injuries from stray bullets in the Rio metropolitan area since July 2016. According to the data, 284 people were killed and 911 injured.
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Fogo Cruzado said in a statement Friday that the country should compensate all victims of stray bullets, not just those hit by military operations.
The group says, “Stray bullets occur because the state is unable to protect the lives of its citizens and control the distribution of firearms.”
