A seven-year-old boy has died after being hit with a stray bullet by an off-duty police officer who was firing on a group of men who allegedly attempted to rob him.

The tragedy has sparked discussion about the use of weapons by officers while off shift, with Security Minister Patricia Bullrich laying the blame with the attackers. The case could prove a litmus test for police accountability and the government’s stance on the matter, similar to the killing of teenager Juan Pablo Kukoc in 2017.

On Wednesday night, seven-year-old Thiago Correa and his father, Fabián Correa, were at a bus stop in Ciudad Evita, La Matanza — around 22 kilometers south-west central Buenos Aires — when they heard shots a couple of blocks away. Fabián tried to duck and protect his son, but it was too late: he had been shot in the head.

The shots were fired by Facundo Daniel Aguilar, 21, who opened fire with his service weapon when four young men approached him, allegedly to rob him and his mother. It was Aguilar’s day off and he was not in uniform. 

Security camera footage of the incident shows four men walk down the street and then suddenly run towards the bus stop. A figure steps out into the street, and then the men start to run away. Aguilar stands in the middle of the pavement, firing after them. Eleven gunshots can be heard.

Aguilar was arrested immediately after the shooting. One of the alleged robbers, 18-year-old Brandon Corpus, was shot six times and died instantly. Two of the other young men were shot once each, but their injuries were not life-threatening and they were arrested. The fourth escaped the scene.

Demanding justice

“I had him on my shoulders because he asked me to. He said, ‘Dad, it’s been a while since you carried me around,’” Fabián said of the moments before the shooting while speaking to the press on Friday. “When it happened, he just said, ‘Dad,’ and I started screaming.”

Thiago was immediately taken to a nearby hospital. However, doctors established that he was brain dead on Friday. He was formally declared dead later that day. Thiago was buried on Monday morning after his family organized a wake and a procession that passed his school and the sports club where he played football.

“We are demanding justice for Thiago. This has to be paid for,”  Fabián said on Friday after announcing his son’s death.

On Friday, before Thiago’s death was confirmed, La Matanza prosecutor Diego Rulli accused Aguilar of homicide as a result of “excessive legitimate defense” for Corpus’ death and called on him to testify. After Thiago’s autopsy results came through, the prosecutor increased the charges to reckless homicide on Sunday. He will testify again on Monday.

Local media state that prosecutors are focusing, among other considerations, on the fact that the men were shot in the back as they were fleeing, which appears to be borne out by the CCTV footage.

Bullrich blames assailants

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich has said that the robbers, not Aguilar, should be held criminally responsible for the child’s death. 

“Those who go out to rob are responsible for Thiago’s homicide,” she told news channel A24 on Monday. “In no way can we blame a person for doing what a police officer is supposed to do.”

On Friday, before Thiago’s death was announced, Bullrich told a press conference that Aguilar had acted in “legitimate self-defense” and demanded that the robbers be charged with “attempted homicide” because they had “gone out to the street to kill.”

Similarities with Chocobar

Aguilar’s shooting of his alleged attackers and of Correa has similarities with a 2017 case in which off-duty police officer Luis Chocobar shot and killed 17-year-old Juan Pablo Kukoc, who had just stabbed a tourist in La Boca and, like Aguilar’s assailants, was shot in the back. 

Patricia Bullrich, who at the time was Security Minister under the Macri administration, threw her support behind Chocobar from day one and praised his actions as exemplary. The case led to a protocol which expanded the rights of police officers to use lethal force, the so-called “Chocobar doctrine.” It was widely criticized by human rights organizations for contravening international law and was struck down in 2019.

Chocobar received a two-year suspended sentence in 2021, but his murder conviction was annulled and a retrial ordered in 2024. 

Unlike Chocobar, Aguilar also shot and killed a small child.

Buenos Aires province Governor Axel Kicillof called Thiago’s killing “an irreparable tragedy” and called for the judiciary to “swiftly establish what happened, determine who was responsible, and apply sanctions accordingly.”

“In Buenos Aires province we will continue to take accountability for what concerns us: increasing funding, state presence and daily commitment so that our people can live peacefully, without fear nor violence. It is still a long way,” Kicillof wrote on X.