A gunman has shot dead a convicted paedophile just hours after he was released from prison.
Joao Ferreira da Silva, 46, received a 42-year prison sentence for sexually abusing and murdering a nine-year-old boy in 2005.
He was murdered on a street in Sinop, a city in central Brazil, on Wednesday, December 10.
Ferreira da Silva had just started an ‘open prison’ regime, only requiring him to return to the jail at night.
He’d spent 17 years behind bars for the murder of Bruno Aparecido dos Santos, a child he lured to an industrial site to sexually abuse.
Ferreira da Silva then killed and buried him, before being arrested ten days later for attacking another child.
In CCTV footage, two masked men walk past Ferreira da Silva who is stood outside a door.
Local police found three bullet casings at the scene and launched an investigation, according to local media.
When Ferreira da Silva was first taken into police custody, around 500 people tried to force their way into the police station to lynch him.
He confessed to his sickening crime before backtracking at his trial, claiming he wasn’t involved.
Bruno’s mum Josiana da Silva said she was ‘happy’ about Ferreira da Silva’s death.
‘I am happy not for my son, my son died and there is no way back, but I am happy that this man will not kill anyone else, no child will be killed by him,’ she said.
She added in an interview with a local TV station: ‘Justice has been done, but for me it took too long.
‘I had the courage to go and see the man who killed my son when he was tried but I regretted it because I was filled with hatred and wanted to kill him.
‘I thought I wouldn’t have the courage to kill him, but today, seeing him dead, I know that if I had had the opportunity to kill him, I would have done so, as a mother.’
Saying she missed her son, who would now be 29, every day, Josiana admitted: ‘I didn’t have the courage to see Bruno after he died.
‘Today I could have my grandchildren, his children, and I don’t. I could be seeing him as a man and I can’t. It hurts every day.’
A police operation to identify and catch the killers, who hid their faces behind hoodies and facemasks, was ongoing today.
Police in Sinop said they had yet to make any arrests or establish whether the shooting was linked to Ferreira da Silva’s notorious crime.
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