🔗 Share this article

Bruno Itan

A photographer who observed the consequences of an extensive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has reported how residents returned with disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the photographer stated. They included law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies was found without a head - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he reported. Numerous victims displayed evidence of knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

The eyewitness explained that he was first alerted about the operation in the early hours by residents living in Alemão, who sent him messages informing him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness went to the healthcare center, where the victims were being brought.

Itan explained that the police prevented journalists from going into the affected area, where the police action were taking place.

"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and announced: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who was raised in that neighborhood, reported he was able to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until dawn.

He described during the night, community members commenced searching the hillside that separates the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for relatives whose whereabouts were unknown following the security action.

Local people from the Penha area proceeded to place the located casualties in a square - and Itan's photos show the response of those present.

"The brutality of it all impacted me profoundly: the grief of loved ones, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, crying, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

The eyewitness

The state leader of Rio state stated that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 law enforcement members was aimed at halting a gang called Red Command from growing their influence.

Initially, local officials stated that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" had been killed in the operation.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 individuals lost their lives.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has put the overall count of fatalities as 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to increase its control across the region.

Experts commonly view one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, alongside a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Per reporter Rafael Soares, who has been covering crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "functions as a network" with area gang leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "business partners".

The gang engages primarily in drug trafficking, additionally trafficking guns, gold, petroleum products, liquor smoking products.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members possess significant weaponry and police said that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of the state, the government representative, labeled Red Command members as drug terrorists and called the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

But the number of people killed during the raid has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "horrified".

During a press briefing the next day, the state leader defended the police force.

"There was no objective to kill anyone. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He added that the circumstances had escalated as the individuals had retaliated: "It resulted of the counterattack they carried out and the disproportionate use of force from the gang members."

The official also said that the victims presented by community members in the neighborhood were "altered".

In a post on social media, he asserted that particular individuals had been taken of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force further reported that tactical gear, body armor, and arms" had been removed from the victims and presented video apparently demonstrating a person stripping military attire {off a corpse