Violeta, 9 years old, is injured after being shot with an air gun. Assembly/g1/Personal file After years of fights and threats, event producer Thiago Silva, 38, accuses a neighbor of having shot his pet cat with a BB gun in Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo. The case occurred on April 22 and is being investigated by the municipality's Environmental Investigations Department. Thiago has lived for 28 years with his mother, aged 73, and sister, aged 41, in a dead-end street in Jardim Pavarenti. According to him, the conflicts began after the arrival of a neighboring family to the site, around ten years ago, and intensified over time. The 9-year-old cat Violeta appeared with a wound near her front paw. Thiago believes that the animal was hit by a pellet gun. A veterinary report obtained by g1 indicates that the injury is compatible with a gunshot. The document describes a penetrating wound with a circular shape and characteristics compatible with projectiles fired by compressed air weapons, popularly known as pellet guns. Now on g1 Security camera images obtained by the family show the neighbor named by Thiago as a suspect removing a long gun from the trunk of a car on the same day the cat was injured. "By the time I got home, my mother had the cat on her lap. She showed me what happened. My sister had just woken up and showed me the image of him with the rifle in his hand. When I saw the cat with the hole, I swear to you I almost fainted. I said: 'How far has it come?' They crossed a very serious line," he said. Despite the injury, Violeta recovered. "She's fine, she's already healed. But now we're leaving her at home. We live in a village and we no longer feel safe letting her out," he said. The case was registered at the Guarulhos Environmental Investigations Department as a practice of animal abuse. In a statement, the Public Security Secretariat (SSP) informed that the case is being investigated through a police investigation. "The team carries out steps to clarify the circumstances of the events and hold the suspect responsible for the crime", informed the ministry. g1 was unable to locate the defense of the neighbors mentioned by Thiago until the last update of this report. Neighbor takes a long gun from the trunk the day the cat was injured. Assembly/g1/Personal file Conflict history According to Thiago, the disagreements started over issues related to the use of the street, especially during events held at neighbors' homes. "We live on a dead-end street. When they have some type of event, they fill the street with cars and no one can get out," he said. He states that his mother used to ask that vehicles not block the path, especially in emergency situations. "There have been times when I needed to take her to the hospital and had to wait for the cars to be removed before I could leave." The producer also shared that, over the years, conflicts became more frequent and began to involve threats and verbal aggression. According to him, the first most serious episode occurred after disagreements related to parking. Thiago reports that his car was hit on two occasions. "That's when everything started to escalate. Since then, the insults, threats and other episodes came", he stated. Thiago states that, as the conflicts worsened, he became a frequent target of homophobic insults. "From that first car crash, I was called 'faggot', 'faggot' and so on." One of the most recent cases occurred in March this year. In a police report registered as an insult, Thiago reported that a neighbor's guest parked in front of the family's residence. According to the record, when his mother asked for the vehicle to be removed, the man threatened her. "My mother went out to the door and asked the guy to move the car. He said he wasn't going to move it and told her it was okay for her to die," he said. The conflicts have even led to interventions by the Military Police. In September last year, Thiago had to interrupt his performance as a DJ at a nightclub in the center of São Paulo after receiving a message from his niece informing him that his mother had become ill during an argument with the neighbors. According to him, the confusion began after a neighboring family's dog — which had already bitten him on another occasion — approached the residence. The family's dogs started barking, and the producer's mother threw a sneaker against the gate to try to scare the animal and keep it away from the front of the house. When she went out to collect the object, she would have been the target of provocations. According to Thiago, the situation evolved into an argument between residents. Upon learning what had happened, the producer left work and returned home. According to him, when he asked neighbors to respect his mother, he began to be threatened and the target of homophobic insults. "They started calling me 'faggot', 'faggot'. They came to beat me. And one of them said insistently: 'I'm going to kill you'", he reported. Fear inside the house The producer states that the conflicts profoundly affected the family's routine. "We live with anxiety. My mother has already had blood pressure spikes and I had to take her to the hospital a few times. After what happened with the cat, it got worse," he said. Because of fear, the family installed monitoring cameras in their home and began constantly monitoring the images on their cell phones — even when they are away from home. "It's the only way I can try to stop this kind of thing. My fear is someone breaking into the house or doing something to my mother," he said. Thiago says that the family's main desire today is to leave the place. "I confess that I feel incapable. My biggest wish today is to get out of here. Take my mother, take my sister and go somewhere else. But I still can't do that," he said.