diff --git a/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/function_builder/mod.rs b/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/function_builder/mod.rs
index 1cac0aa67ed..989249d04ef 100644
--- a/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/function_builder/mod.rs
+++ b/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/function_builder/mod.rs
@@ -487,9 +487,9 @@ impl FunctionBuilder {
                 }
             }
             Type::Array(..) | Type::Slice(..) => {
-                self.insert_instruction(Instruction::IncrementRc { value }, None);
                 // If there are nested arrays or slices, we wait until ArrayGet
                 // is issued to increment the count of that array.
+                self.insert_instruction(Instruction::IncrementRc { value }, None);
             }
         }
     }
diff --git a/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/ssa_gen/context.rs b/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/ssa_gen/context.rs
index adf68bacba4..0ca0f40d47f 100644
--- a/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/ssa_gen/context.rs
+++ b/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/ssa_gen/context.rs
@@ -999,6 +999,7 @@ impl<'a> FunctionContext<'a> {
         new_value.for_each(|value| {
             let value = value.eval(self);
             array = self.builder.insert_array_set(array, index, value);
+            self.builder.increment_array_reference_count(array);
             index = self.builder.insert_binary(index, BinaryOp::Add, one);
         });
         array
diff --git a/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/ssa_gen/mod.rs b/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/ssa_gen/mod.rs
index 9a0dbe585a9..1758e1785d3 100644
--- a/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/ssa_gen/mod.rs
+++ b/compiler/noirc_evaluator/src/ssa/ssa_gen/mod.rs
@@ -730,6 +730,11 @@ impl<'a> FunctionContext<'a> {
         let lhs = self.extract_current_value(&assign.lvalue)?;
         let rhs = self.codegen_expression(&assign.expression)?;
 
+        rhs.clone().for_each(|value| {
+            let value = value.eval(self);
+            self.builder.increment_array_reference_count(value);
+        });
+
         self.assign_new_value(lhs, rhs);
         Ok(Self::unit_value())
     }
diff --git a/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/Nargo.toml b/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/Nargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a878566a372
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/Nargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+[package]
+name = "brillig_cow_assign"
+type = "bin"
+authors = [""]
+compiler_version = ">=0.23.0"
+
+[dependencies]
diff --git a/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/Prover.toml b/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/Prover.toml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..882c73b83f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/Prover.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+items_to_update = 10
+index = 6
diff --git a/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/src/main.nr b/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/src/main.nr
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e5c3e2bd2f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test_programs/execution_success/brillig_cow_assign/src/main.nr
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+global N = 10;
+
+unconstrained fn main() {
+    let mut arr = [0; N];
+    let mut mid_change = arr;
+
+    for i in 0..N {
+        if i == N / 2 {
+            mid_change = arr;
+        }
+        arr[i] = 27;
+    }
+
+    // Expect:
+    // arr        = [27, 27, 27, 27, 27, 27, 27, 27, 27, 27]
+    // mid_change = [27, 27, 27, 27, 27, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
+
+    let modified_i = N / 2 + 1;
+    assert_eq(arr[modified_i], 27);
+
+    // Fail here!
+    assert(mid_change[modified_i] != 27);
+}