🔗 Share this article

The photographer

A reporter who witnessed the aftermath of a large-scale Brazilian police operation in the Brazilian city has reported how residents brought back badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The casualties "continued arriving: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness described. They included security forces.

One individual was found without a head - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Numerous victims displayed what he described as knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals were killed during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid in the city.

The photographer stated that he initially learned to the raid early on Tuesday by residents living in Alemão, who contacted him telling him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the victims were coming in.

Itan explained that the police prevented journalists from entering the affected area, where the security measures was under way.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and declared: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who grew up in the community, explained he was able to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he continued until dawn.

He reported that evening, area inhabitants commenced searching the mountainous area that separates the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Local people of the Penha neighbourhood organized the discovered victims in a square - the photographer's images show the emotions of the people there.

"The violence of it all impacted me deeply: the grief of the families, women collapsing, expectant spouses, crying, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

The photographer

The governor of Rio state announced that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to stopping an illegal organization known as the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

Initially, the Rio state government stated that sixty individuals along with four officers" were fatally injured in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations suggests that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to disadvantaged individuals, has put the total number of casualties as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction that recently has been able to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, together with a rival criminal group, with a background extending half a century.

Per Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city over many years, Red Command "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "operational allies".

The criminal group concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking firearms, valuable minerals, fuel, liquor cigarettes.

According to the authorities, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of Rio state, the political leader, described gang affiliates as criminal extremists and called the security forces fatally injured in the action as brave public servants.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the operation has come in for criticism from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "horrified".

In a media appearance the following day, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"There was no objective to cause fatalities. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He continued that the events intensified as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the resistance they executed and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The official also said that the bodies presented by community members in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

Via a statement on social media, he said that some of them had been taken of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force also said that tactical gear, body armor, and weapons" had been removed from the victims and displayed evidence seemingly depicting an individual removing tactical gear {off a corpse