A cop has been released on bail after he fatally shot his pregnant wife in the belly while cleaning the weapon in their bedroom.

The incident took place in the couple’s apartment on Itaparica Beach in the city of Vila Velha in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo on Thursday night (2nd December).

Luiz Roberto Ramalheite, who works as a municipal guard in the neighbouring city of Vitoria, shot himself before the bullet hit his wife Carolina Ferraz Scalfoni, who was five months pregnant, in the belly.

The couple had been together for 10 years.

According to the Military Police (Brazil’s preventive police force), the bullet that hit the victim also hit the suspect in the hand, injuring him.

According to a friend of the suspect who preferred to remain anonymous, the shot was accidental.

He was quoted as saying in the news portal G1: “What was passed onto me was that he was in the bedroom cleaning the gun and then she came by to tell him she was going to the gym and the gun accidentally went off.”

The injured woman was taken to the local Antonio Bezerra de Faria Hospital, where she suffered a cardiac arrest.

She was successfully revived and admitted to the operating room. However, she then succumbed to her injuries, also losing her unborn baby, which was to be the couple’s first child.

After receiving medical treatment, the suspect was taken to the police homicide division in Vitoria, where he was questioned before being released on bail.

According to the Civil Police (Brazil’s investigative police force), he is being investigated on possible manslaughter charges.

The Internal Affairs Division of the Vitoria Municipal Guard will also open an investigation into the case.