Police in Brazil have arrested the second man suspected of shooting at British tourist Eloise Dixon.
Erivelton Jose dos Santos, nicknamed NG, was held in a makeshift crack den in the shanty town where the holidaymaker from Kent cheated death after taking a wrong turn last month with her husband and three children.
He was arrested along with three other men unconnected to the crime during a raid near Rio de Janeiro on Saturday which led to the seizure of two guns and cocaine.
Dos Santos, pictured handcuffed by local media in the back of a police car with a Marlon Brando Godfather T-shirt on, was on Sunday languishing behind bars.
His remand in prison over Mrs Dixon’s August 6 shooting was agreed ahead of his arrest.
Erivelton Jose dos Santos, who is suspected of shooting British tourist Eloise Dixon last month, was arrested during a raid on a crack den near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday. Another alleged gunman, Jackson Lima Ferreira, known as JK, was arrested during a raid on another nearby shanty town on August 12. The whereabouts of Bahia Cabeludo are still unkown
Eloise Dixon, pictured with her three daughters, was shot after her family took a wrong turn into a favela in Rio and ended up in gang territory
Dos Santos as arrested along with three other men unconnected to the crime during a raid near Rio de Janeiro on Saturday which led to the seizure of two guns and cocaine (pictured above)
His detention took place in a drugs den in Agua Santa, the slum in Angra dos Reis near Rio de Janeiro where Mrs Dixon and her family ended up following a language mix-up.
Police issued wanted posters for dos Santos and two other adult suspects last month.
Dos Santos was described as one of the two men who shot at Mrs Dixon’s car, hitting her in the stomach and chest.
The other alleged gunman, Jackson Lima Ferreira, known as JK, was arrested during a raid on another nearby shanty town on August 12 when he was injured in a shootout with police.
A third suspect, who like the fourth man named as a fugitive over the crime was not suspected of shooting at Mrs Dixon but identified as part of the gang that targeted the British holidaymakers, handed himself in a few days ago.
The whereabouts of the fourth suspect, named locally as Bahia Cabeludo and said to have fired a warning shot into the air before his alleged accomplices fired at Mrs Dixon, was unclear as of Sunday.
The family are said to be too scared about what happened to make an official statement to police, but have spoken informally to officers
Mrs Dixon with husband and their three daughters. Her eldest, Isabella, bravely stemmed the flow of blood from the wound with her hand
Two minors, one of whom was found dead last month, were linked to the shooting incident but never pictured on wanted posters.
During the shooting, the first bullet was fired through the driver’s window, smashing the glass and hitting Mrs Dixon, who was in the passenger seat, in the stomach.
Incredibly, this is probably what saved her life.
As she lurched forward, the gunman on the other side also fired through the window, and the bullet hit the headrest where Mrs Dixon’s head had been a second earlier, scraping her right shoulder.
As the car moved forward, the men fired again, with one bullet going through the back window and another fired through the side of the car and bursting the right front tyre.
Amazingly, none of the Dixons’ three girls, who were sitting in the back, or Mrs Dixon’s husband, were hurt.
Mrs Dixon, 46, from Hayes near Bromley, Kent, was rushed to hospital for a life-saving operation after being wounded.
Her ex-paratrooper husband Maxwell Dixon managed to reach a police station with the couple’s three daughters, Isabella, 13, Holly, eight, and Alice, seven, so teaching assistant Mrs Dixon could be aided.
Isabella has been credited with saving her mum’s life by stemming the flow of blood with her hand as they waited for help.
During the shooting, the first bullet was fired through the driver’s window, smashing the glass and hitting Mrs Dixon, who was in the passenger seat, in the stomach
As she lurched forward, the gunman on the other side also fired through the window, and the bullet hit the headrest where Mrs Dixon’s head had been a second earlier, scraping her right shoulder
As the car moved forward, the men fired again, with one bullet going through the back window and another fired through the side of the car and bursting the right front tyre
Amazingly, none of the Dixons’ three girls, who were sitting in the back, or Mrs Dixon’s husband, were hurt
Ex-paratrooper husband Maxwell Dixon managed to reach a police station with the couple’s three daughters, Isabella, 13, Holly, eight, and Alice, seven, so teaching assistant Mrs Dixon could be aided
Isabella has been credited with saving her mum’s life by stemming the flow of blood with her hand as they waited for help
It later emerged the holidaymakers had been directed towards a gang-controlled shanty town called Agua Santa – Holy Water in Portuguese – in a language mix-up after they stopped to ask where they could buy drinking water.
Mr and Mrs Dixon had stopped off on the road from Rio de Janeiro to Santos near Angra dos Reis with their children when they were targeted.
The slum they ended up in is home to drugs traffickers belonging to a Rio de Janeiro-based criminal organisation called Terceiro Comando Puro.
They split from the Terceiro Comando in 2002 following a bloody prison massacre.
Terceiro Comando Puro, whose members were initially blamed for the gun attack, are regarded as the second most important criminal organisation in Rio de Janeiro.
Mr Dixon’s mum Hazel praised her son afterwards as a ‘very good driver.’
She said when she revealed he had been a paratrooper: ‘He’s very very good in an emergency.
It later emerged the holidaymakers had been directed towards a gang-controlled shanty town called Agua Santa – Holy Water in Portuguese – in a language mix-up after they stopped to ask where they could buy drinking water
Mr and Mrs Dixon had stopped off on the road from Rio de Janeiro to Santos near Angra dos Reis with their children when they were targeted
‘The gunman shot out the tyres but apparently he drove the car as fast as he could with four flat tyres to a safe area and to the nearest police station.
‘It could have been so much worse.
‘Obviously I sing his praises but I think he would have been really gutsy. He’s useful when it comes to the crunch because he’s calm as can be.’
Police highway officer Douglas Barros, 43, who drove the family to hospital after the shooting, said: ‘Eloise’s eldest daughter kept her hand firmly on her mother’s stomach for the whole journey.
‘She and the other girls were still crying, but she still kept calmly telling her mother to be strong and that she would make it.
‘The mother didn’t say a word, she was drifting in and out of consciousness and the life was draining out of her.
‘The doctor later said that it was what the daughter did in putting pressure on the wound for all that time that saved her life.’