58 year old José da Conceição Pereira, a community leader known as “Irmão do Coroadinho”, was killed with a head shot on the night of April 13th 2016 inside his own house in Alegria Street, São Luís County, State of Maranhão.

The murderer got in through the back door and shot him while he was watching television. The family said nothing was taken from the house.

Two days after the attack, Elias Ferreira Pereira, aka “Monk”, was arrested under suspicion of committing the murder. He is a known criminal in the area and had a pending arrest warrant for qualified robbery.

José, aka “Irmão do Coroadinho”, had been receiving several death threats in the previous months. He was a very popular community leader and the third one in the area to be killed in the past year.