🔗 Share this article

Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who witnessed the consequences of an extensive law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has reported how local people came back with mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The bodies "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the photographer reported. The total contained law enforcement personnel.

One individual was discovered headless - additional victims were "severely damaged", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

The photographer explained that he initially learned to the raid in the early hours by residents living in Alemão, who contacted him informing him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness made his way to a local medical facility, where the casualties were coming in.

Itan explained that security forces stopped members of the press from going into the operation zone, where the police action was under way.

"Police officers established a perimeter and announced: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, explained he was able to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until the next morning.

He explained that evening, community members started looking the hillside that borders Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for relatives whose whereabouts were unknown following the security action.

Community members living in Penha proceeded to place the discovered victims in an open area - the photographer's images display the reaction of the people there.

"The brutality of it all shook me profoundly: the grief of relatives, women collapsing, expectant spouses, sobbing, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The official of the state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to preventing a criminal group called Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Initially, the Rio state government claimed that "60 suspects and four police officers" lost their lives during the action.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has put the total number of fatalities to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, Red Command represents the unique criminal entity that recently has been able to expand its territory across the region.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, in company with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

According to correspondent an expert, with extensive experience documenting crime in Rio for years, the criminal organization "functions as a network" with area gang leaders forming part of the gang and serving as "commercial associates".

The criminal group focuses mainly on drug trafficking, but also smuggles firearms, precious metals, fuel, alcohol and tobacco.

Based on official reports, organization members possess significant weaponry and police said that during the raid, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of Rio state, Cláudio Castro, characterized gang affiliates as criminal extremists and described the security forces killed in the raid as "heroes".

However, the count of fatalities during the raid has come in for criticism from UN human rights officials stating they were "horrified".

At a news conference the next day, Governor Castro defended the police force.

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We aimed to detain everyone safely," he said.

He added that the events intensified due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The official also said that the bodies shown by residents in the area had been "tampered with".

Via a statement through digital channels, he asserted that some of them had been stripped of tactical gear that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi from the police department additionally stated that military attire, protective equipment, and weapons" had been removed from the victims and displayed evidence seemingly depicting a person stripping military attire {off a corpse