The victims kept arriving - eyewitness describes lethal Rio police raid

Bruno Itan

A photographer who documented the consequences of a large-scale law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has recounted how community members returned with disfigured remains of the deceased individuals.

The bodies "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the photographer stated. They included security forces.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - others were "totally disfigured", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims were killed during the security action against a criminal group - the bloodiest action Rio has experienced.

The eyewitness explained that he was first alerted to the raid Tuesday morning by local people from the Alemão area, who sent him messages telling him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The eyewitness traveled to a local medical facility, where the bodies were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that security forces stopped members of the press from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were taking place.

"Security forces formed a line and declared: 'The press are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in the area, explained he succeeded to gain access into the restricted zone, where he stayed until dawn.

He reported that Tuesday night, area inhabitants began to search the elevated terrain which divides the Penha neighborhood from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Community members from the Penha area arranged the discovered victims in an open area - and Itan's photos display the response of the people there.

"The violence of the situation affected me profoundly: the grief of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, angry family members," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The governor of the state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was intended to preventing a gang referred to as Red Command from expanding its territory.

Originally, local officials maintained that sixty individuals along with four officers" had been killed in the raid.

Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

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

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has succeeded to increase its control across the region.

It is widely considered as a major illegal faction in the country, in company with a rival criminal group, with a background spanning over five decades.

Based on reporter a specialist, who has long reported on crime in Rio extensively, the criminal organization "operates like a franchise" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and acting as "commercial associates".

The criminal group focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, but also smuggles weapons, precious metals, petroleum products, alcohol cigarettes.

According to the authorities, organization members possess significant weaponry and officials reported that while the action was underway, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of Rio state, the government representative, labeled gang affiliates as drug terrorists and described the four police officers fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

But the number of people killed in the operation has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "shocked".

In a media appearance the next day, the state leader justified security actions.

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We intended to take suspects into custody without harm," he said.

He further explained that the circumstances intensified because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the retaliation they carried out and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The governor additionally stated that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha were "altered".

Via a statement on social media, he said that certain victims had been taken of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force also said that military attire, vests, and weapons" were stripped from the bodies and presented video appearing to show an individual removing tactical gear {off a corpse