Cops believe that this young married mum, who was fatally shot in the back as she left a party, may have been killed “accidentally” by her friend who was messing around with a pistol.

Janaina Silva Barrozo, 27, was killed by a bullet that entered her back and lodged in her heart as she left a party in a rural suburb of the Brazilian city of Cuiaba in the early hours of Sunday, 3rd October.

The young woman was leaving the party in a car with her husband and friends when the fatal shot was fired.

Her death had remained a mystery until the alleged perpetrator, whose name was not divulged, handed himself in to the police flanked by his lawyer, Paulo Fabrini, on Wednesday, 6th October.

According to Fabrini, the businessman, who lives in Cuiaba, was trying to remove the magazine from a pistol in the back seat of the car when it went off, hitting the victim in the back.

Her husband and friends drove her to hospital where she succumbed to her injury, but failed to call the police or an ambulance.

The firearm was thrown into an area of woodland before the alleged perpetrator accompanied the police to the scene of the crime and recovered it.

The police seized the weapon and also the vehicle in which the alleged crime took place as part of the investigation.

Fabrini said his client had bought the pistol for BRL 3,000 (GBP 399) for self-defence because he was allegedly being threatened over the sale of a car.

He said his client was not drunk at the time of the incident.

The victim’s husband, who told the police his wife was hit by a stray bullet fired by an unknown person at the party, will receive a criminal record for perjury, but will not face jail.

The victim, who worked with her husband in air-conditioning maintenance, leaves behind a daughter, whose age has been reported as three or four in different media.

The investigation is ongoing.