The "Harry Potter" author JK Rowling paid tribute to the Brazilian voiceover artist who was shot dead while working as a cop in the Rio de Janeiro shanty town.

The voiceover artist, Caio César Ignácio Cardoso de Melo who was a policeman in Rio was killed during a shootout in Complexo de Alemão town on Thursday. Melo who is only 27was working as a voiceover artist in his spare time while his full-time job was serving as a Policeman, according to The Guardian.

It is to be noted that Melo was the one who gave voiceover for all the eight "Harry Potter" series in Portuguese. Military police in Brazil as well as the Warner Bros studios has confirmed Melo's unfortunate demise on Thursday, according to local reports.

Rowling paid her tribute to the young man in Twitter: "Desperately sad to hear that Caio César, Brazilian voice of Harry Potter, has died at the age of 27. My thoughts are with his family," reported Economic Times.

According to local police reports, Melo was shot in the neck in the wake of exchange of gunfire during a regular patrol in the shanty town. He was rushed to the hospital immediately and subjected to surgery but died few hours later of sustained injuries.

Melo has also given voice to Sokka in the Brazilian version of Avatar: the Last Airbender animated series, Mexican soap opera Rebelde as Diego and in Digimon cartoons as TK. Melo started his voiceover career as young as seven in Smarty Guy, the Disney TV series.

"Everyone has heard the voice of Caio César at some point," said Charles Emmanuel, the actor who voiced Ron Weasley in Portuguese in a report by the Economic Times." "I've had the opportunity to work with him several times, because we are the same generation of voice actors."

"He was a runt, skinny, but he grew up and went on to become a policeman and turned into a father. He became a man," he added.