Ten Brazilian soldiers have been arrested after their army patrol fired on a car carrying a family in the city of Rio.
Police accused the soldiers of firing more than 80 shots at the car, killing driver Evaldo dos Santos Rosa and injuring a passenger and a passer-by.
Mr Rosa was driving his family to a baby shower in northern Rio.
Investigators believe the patrol mistook the family’s car for one of the same colour driven by gang members.
Police who searched the family’s car said no weapons had been found inside.
Detective Leonardo Salgado said that the “family ended up being victims of the military”.
The officer said that he could not see “a legitimate defence for the number of shots”.
The soldiers have been charged with “noncompliance with the rules of engagement” and will be tried by a military court.
Local media said that the soldiers were part of a routine patrol near a military installation but the incident nevertheless raises concerns over the deployment of troops to boost security in areas with high crime.
In January, 300 troops were sent to the north-eastern city of Fortaleza to tackle a surge in violent crime and last year, then-President Michel Temer temporarily deployed the army to Rio state.
Some analysts also think that members of the security forces have become more trigger happy by the tough approach advocated by the new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
The incident in which Mr Rosa was killed happened on Sunday in the northern Guadalupe neighbourhood of Rio.
A woman who was in the car with Mr Rosa, his wife, her stepfather and the couple’s seven-year-old son said the soldiers fired at them without any previous warning.
“We got out of the car, I ran with the child and yet they kept shooting,” she told Globo TV.
