The autopsy of João Pedro Matos, 14, who died on May 18 during a police operation in São Gonçalo (metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro), shows that the boy was hit in the back by a rifle shot.
The projectile entered the right dorsal region, below the armpit, from bottom to top and in a diagonal direction. It caused lung and heart injuries and was lodged close to the teenager's left shoulder, as reported by the Extra newspaper.
The Homicide Police in the region identified that the projectile has a caliber of 5.56 mm, the same caliber as the rifle of one of the civil police officers who participated in the action, in support of the Federal Police. The other two carried 7.62 mm rifles.
The three agents were temporarily removed from service on the streets, but remain in the Special Resources Coordination (Core) exercising administrative activities, as reported by the Civil Police internal affairs department last week.
Investigators, however, are still waiting for the ballistic confrontation results, which will compare the projectile with the police weapons. They are also awaiting the expert's report from the place of death: the living room of João Pedro's aunt's house in Complexo do Salgueiro.
People who were at the property the day after the incident counted about 70 marks of guns spread across different rooms, mainly from outside to inside. The place where the boy was shot stands above a step of about 30 centimeters, which may explain the shot's direction.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon