🔗 Share this article

The eyewitness

A reporter who documented the consequences of a large-scale law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has reported how residents came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept coming: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan stated. They included law enforcement personnel.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he said. Many also had what appeared to be stab wounds.

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

The eyewitness explained that he was first alerted concerning the action early on Tuesday by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him telling him gunfire had erupted.

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

The eyewitness reported that the police blocked media personnel from accessing the operation zone, where the police action were taking place.

"Security forces created a barrier and announced: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in the area, reported he was able to make his way into the restricted zone, where he continued until dawn.

He reported during the night, area inhabitants commenced searching the elevated terrain that borders the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones who had been missing since the police raid.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the located casualties in a public space - the photographer's images reveal the reaction of those present.

"The brutality of it all shook me deeply: the sorrow of relatives, women collapsing, women carrying children, crying, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of the region declared that the extensive law enforcement effort deploying about 2,500 security personnel was aimed at stopping a gang called the criminal faction from expanding its territory.

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

They have since said that early calculations shows that 117 individuals lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to the poor, has estimated the total number of fatalities at 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang represents the unique criminal entity that recently has been able to increase its control throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view as a major illegal faction nationally, in company with another major gang, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

Based on correspondent Rafael Soares, who has been covering criminal activity in the city extensively, the gang "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses affiliating with the group and serving as "business partners".

The organization focuses mainly on drug trafficking, but also smuggles firearms, valuable minerals, petroleum products, beverages cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members have substantial firearms and police said that throughout the operation, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The official of Rio state, the government representative, described organization participants as "narcoterrorists" and called the security forces killed in the raid as brave public servants.

However, the count of fatalities during the raid has received condemnation from UN human rights officials saying it was "shocked".

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

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.

He continued that the situation intensified due to the alleged criminals fought back: "It resulted of the resistance they executed and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The official additionally stated that the casualties presented by community members in Penha were "altered".

In a post on online platforms, he said that some of them had been removed of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

A police official representing security forces also said that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and weapons" had been removed from the victims and presented video seemingly depicting a man removing tactical gear {off a corpse