Union must compensate for death of victim of stray bullet in military operation in RJ

The Plenary of the Federal Supreme Court decided that the Union should be held responsible for the death of a victim from a stray bullet fired during a military operation carried out in Complexo da Maré, in Rio de Janeiro, in 2015. The understanding was established in an extraordinary appeal with grievance (Theme 1,237) judged in a virtual session.

The collegiate, however, will establish in a future in-person plenary session the thesis of general repercussion to be applied to similar processes, which involve the State’s responsibility in hypotheses in which the expert opinion on the origin of the shooting is not conclusive.

In this specific case, the majority of ministers voted to accept the family’s request for the Union to pay compensation for moral and material damages to the family of the victim of a stray bullet during an armed confrontation between criminals and Army soldiers in Rio.

The expertise carried out by the technical police was unable to define where the shot came from. For this reason, the ordinary courts dismissed the claim as unfounded, on the grounds that there was no proof that the shot came from a weapon belonging to the public security forces, and concluded that there was no causal link between the state conduct and the damage caused.

Accountability

The majority of STF ministers, on the other hand, decided that the inconclusive expertise on the origin of the shooting creates the Union’s responsibility for the death, since the operation was carried out by a federal force.

The rapporteur of the process, minister Edson Fachin, ministers Rosa Weber (retired) and Cármen Lúcia and minister Gilmar Mendes were part of the minority current in relation to the scope of the decision, as, in their view, the state of Rio de Janeiro should also be held responsible, given the “clear state failure to diligently fulfill its duty to investigate the death”. With information from the STF press office.

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