🔗 Share this article

Bruno Itan

A reporter who observed the consequences of an extensive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has described how residents returned with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", the photographer reported. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

A particular victim was found without a head - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed what he described as blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation in the city.

Bruno Itan stated that residents first notified him to the raid early on Tuesday by local people living in Alemão, who reached out informing him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were coming in.

Itan explained that security forces stopped members of the press from entering the affected area, where the police action was under way.

"Police officers created a barrier and announced: 'Media representatives doesn't get past here'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in the area, explained he was able to enter past the security perimeter, where he continued until dawn.

He described that evening, community members started looking the elevated terrain which divides the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for relatives whose whereabouts were unknown after the operation.

Residents living in Penha organized the located casualties in a public space - and Itan's photos show the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The brutality of it all impacted me a lot: the grief of loved ones, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, crying, angry family members," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of Rio state declared that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 security personnel was designed to stopping a gang referred to as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Initially, local officials stated that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that initial estimates shows that 117 "suspects" were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to the poor, has calculated the overall count of people killed as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to make territorial gains throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction in Brazil, in company with First Capital Command, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

Per Brazilian journalist an expert, who has long reported on illegal operations in Rio extensively, the gang "works as a system" with area gang leaders joining the organization and becoming "business partners".

The organization engages primarily in illegal drug trade, while also dealing in weapons, valuable minerals, fuel, beverages and tobacco.

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

The state leader of the state, the government representative, labeled gang affiliates as criminal extremists and described the security forces who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

However, the count of people killed during the raid has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "shocked".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the official defended the police force.

"There was no objective to result in deaths. We intended to arrest them all alive," he stated.

He further explained that the events worsened because the suspects fought back: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the disproportionate use of force from the gang members."

The state leader further reported that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha had been "tampered with".

Through a message through digital channels, he asserted that particular individuals had been stripped of tactical gear which he claimed they wore "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

A police official representing security forces also said that military attire, body armor, and weapons" had been removed from the casualties and showed footage apparently demonstrating a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse