🔗 Share this article

Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who witnessed the aftermath of an extensive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has described how local people brought back badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.

The casualties "continued arriving: the count kept increasing", the photographer described. They included law enforcement personnel.

A particular victim had been decapitated - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he said. Many also had what appeared to be blade trauma.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan reported that he initially learned to the raid in the early hours by residents living in Alemão, who reached out informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The reporter traveled to a local medical facility, where the victims were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that security forces prevented journalists from going into the Penha neighborhood, where the security measures was under way.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and said: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in that neighborhood, explained he managed to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until the next morning.

He described during the night, local residents began to search the hillside that borders the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown following the security action.

Local people living in Penha organized the discovered victims in a public space - the documented evidence show the response of the gathered crowd.

"The harsh reality of the situation affected me a lot: the grief of loved ones, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of Rio state declared that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 security personnel was designed to halting a gang referred to as the criminal faction from increasing their control.

Originally, local officials stated that "60 suspects along with four officers" had been killed in the raid.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count indicates that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has put the final tally of casualties to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has been able to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs in the country, in company with a rival criminal group, with a background spanning over five decades.

According to Brazilian journalist a specialist, who has been covering criminal activity in the city over many years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and becoming "business partners".

The organization focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, while also dealing in weapons, precious metals, petroleum products, alcohol and tobacco.

Based on official reports, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that while the action was underway, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the region, the political leader, described gang affiliates as drug terrorists and called the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

But the number of fatalities in the operation has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials stating they were "appalled".

During a press briefing on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He further explained that the events worsened as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The state leader also said that the victims presented by community members in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

In a post on social media, he claimed that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi representing security forces additionally stated that tactical gear, vests, and weapons" had been removed from the casualties and presented video seemingly depicting an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse