🔗 Share this article

Bruno Itan

A photographer who witnessed the results of a massive Brazilian police operation in the Brazilian city has described how community members brought back mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The casualties "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness stated. The total contained those of police officers.

One individual had been decapitated - others were "severely damaged", he said. Numerous victims displayed evidence of stab wounds.

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

Bruno Itan explained that he initially learned to the raid early on Tuesday by community members from the Alemão area, who sent him messages telling him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter went to a local medical facility, where the bodies were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that security forces stopped members of the press from accessing the operation zone, where the operation were occurring.

"Law enforcement personnel created a barrier and said: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

However, the photographer, who grew up in that neighborhood, explained he was able to enter into the restricted zone, where he continued through the night.

He reported that evening, community members commenced searching the mountainous area that separates the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones who had been missing since the police raid.

Local people living in Penha arranged the located casualties in a square - and Itan's photos show the emotions of those present.

"The brutality of what occurred shook me profoundly: the pain of loved ones, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, weeping, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

The eyewitness

The state leader of the region announced that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 security personnel was intended to preventing a gang referred to as Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

At first, the Rio state government stated that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" had been killed during the action.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 alleged criminals lost their lives.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the final tally of casualties as 132.

According to researchers, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has succeeded to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs nationally, alongside another major gang, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

Per Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has been covering criminal activity in the city extensively, the criminal organization "works as a system" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and serving as "business partners".

The organization engages primarily in narcotics distribution, while also dealing in firearms, valuable minerals, energy resources, beverages and tobacco.

Based on official reports, organization members possess significant weaponry and authorities stated that throughout the operation, they came under attack using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of Rio state, the government representative, described Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as "heroes".

But the number of fatalities in the operation has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "horrified".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the official supported law enforcement.

"There was no objective to cause fatalities. We intended to arrest them all alive," he declared.

He continued that the situation had escalated as the individuals fought back: "It resulted of the resistance they carried out and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The official further reported that the bodies displayed by locals in the neighborhood were "altered".

Through a message on online platforms, he claimed that some of them had been taken of military-style attire that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation to security forces".

Felipe Curi from the police department further reported that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and firearms" were stripped from the casualties and displayed evidence seemingly depicting a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse