A convicted child killer and paedophile was shot dead on the street outside a hotel on Wednesday.

13:58, Sun, Dec 14, 2025 Updated: 14:33, Sun, Dec 14, 2025

CCTV of João Ferreira da Silva moments before his death

João Ferreira da Silva had just started a ‘semi-open prison’ (Image: Newsflash)

Convicted paedophile and child killer is ambushed and shot dead

A convicted paedophile and child killer was ambushed and shot dead in the street a day after he was released from prison. João Ferreira da Silva, 46, was murdered on the morning of Wednesday, December 10 on a street in the Brazilian city of Sinop, in the state of Mato Grosso. The attack took place in front of a hotel and was recorded by a security camera, hours after the man was released from prison.

He had been sentenced to 42 years in jail for the brutal October 28, 2005, murder of nine-year-old Bruno Aparecido dos Santos after luring him to a building site and sexually abusing him before ending his life and burying him nearby. The paedophile killer was arrested 10 days later after attacking another child, for which he was given an additional 10 years behind bars.

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João Ferreira da Silva was serving a 42 year sentence (Image: Newsflash)

The case sparked widespread outrage in Sinop. When he was first taken into custody, around 500 people tried to enter the police station where Ferreira da Silva was being held, which is why he was transferred to Cuiabá.

The CCTV footage shows Ferreira da Silva standing by the entrance as two masked men move in on him. Police at the scene recovered three spent bullet casings and have opened an investigation, local media reported.

He is made to raise his hands above his head and is escorted away from the hotel entrance while an accomplice ensures guests stay clear. Moments later, he is shot, collapsing onto the pavement as the assailants make their escape.

17 years into his 2008 sentence, the former bricklayer had just been granted permission to serve part of his time in a semi-open prison regime, therefore allowing him to spend his days outside and return to jail only at night.

Bruno's mother, Josiana da Silva, said after news of her son’s killer’s murder emerged: "I ask God for forgiveness for being happy. 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 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 every day, who would now be 29, Josiana da Silva said: "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."