Woman whose dad was shot dead becomes a cop to avenge him

A woman whose father was shot dead when she was nine became a cop to avenge him and arrested his killer 25 years after the murder.

Gislayne Silva de Deus, 36, helped arrest the murderer of her father Givaldo Jose Vicente de Deus, 35, who was shot at point-blank range over a debt of £20 in Boa Vista, Brazil, in February 1999, according to local media.

Wanted man Raimundo Alves Gomes, 60, had been on the run since 2016 before being arrested in Boa Vista, the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima, on September 25.

Gislayne was just a child when her father was brutally murdered and started studying law when she was 18 to become a lawyer. She also took the police entry exam and became an officer, even working at a prison at one point. 

'When I was a prison [police officer], I always imagined [the killer] arriving there to serve his sentence,' she told local media.

She later joined the police force as a clerk, where she was assigned to the General Homicide Division (DGH) and tirelessly gathered information about her father's killer, eventually tracking him down before he was arrested.

Footage showed Gislayne finally coming face-to-face with her father's murderer at the police station after she helped to arrest him.  

Alves Gomes had been found guilty of murder in 2013 but only went on the run in 2016 after an arrest warrant was issued against him, some 14 years after he committed the crime.

The brutal murder took place on February 16, 1999 in Boa Vista's Asa Branca neighbourhood while the victim was playing pool with a friend.

The killer showed up to collect the £20 debt, with Gislayne saying that her father had owned a supermarket and that the killer was one of his suppliers.

She said that her father had tried to settle the debt by offering the killer a freezer, but he declined and left the venue before returning about 30 minutes later armed with a gun.

The pair got into a physical fight and her father was fatally shot. He was rushed to hospital but died of his injuries.

Gislayne has three sisters and a brother, the youngest of whom was only two years old when their father was killed. 

The killer fled the scene before being arrested by the police on the same day. He was, however, inextricably released from police custody before his trial.

Even more inexplicable, the Roraima Court only issued a warrant for the killer's arrest three years after the conviction.

Local media said that the statute of limitations for arresting homicide defendants is 20 years in Brazil, meaning that the police officer still had approximately six years to track down her father's killer.

Alves Gomes was presented before a judge on September 26 and his conviction was upheld. He was then sent to prison.

'With his arrest, I cleansed my soul and that of my entire family. It was the end of a cycle. Today we have peace and the feeling that justice was served.' 

She added: 'This won't bring our father back, but [the killer] will serve the sentence he should have served many years ago.'