The victims kept arriving - photographer recounts lethal Rio police raid

Bruno Itan

A photographer who observed the consequences of a massive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has reported how local people brought back disfigured remains of the deceased individuals.

The victims "kept piling up: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan stated. They included security forces.

A particular victim had been decapitated - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he said. Several bodies showed what he described as knife injuries.

In excess of 120 victims lost their lives during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the bloodiest action in the city.

The eyewitness reported that he initially learned to the raid Tuesday morning by community members of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the victims were being brought.

Itan explained that security forces stopped members of the press from accessing the Penha neighborhood, where the police action were occurring.

"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and said: 'Journalists are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in the community, stated he succeeded to gain access into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until the next morning.

He explained that Tuesday night, area inhabitants started looking the mountainous area which divides the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Residents from the Penha area organized the discovered victims in a square - and Itan's photos display the reaction of those present.

"The harsh reality of the situation affected me profoundly: the grief of loved ones, women collapsing, pregnant wives, weeping, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The governor of the region announced that the massive police operation with approximately 2,500 law enforcement members was designed to halting a criminal group known as Red Command from growing their influence.

Initially, the Rio state government stated that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" were fatally injured during the action.

Officials subsequently stated that early calculations indicates that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the overall count of casualties as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the gang is the only criminal group that recently has been able to make territorial gains across the region.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, alongside First Capital Command, featuring a timeline spanning over five decades.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has been covering criminal activity in the city for years, the gang "works as a system" with area gang leaders joining the organization and acting as "operational allies".

The criminal group concentrates largely on narcotics distribution, but also smuggles firearms, precious metals, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

Based on official reports, criminal affiliates possess significant weaponry and police said that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The official of the state, the government representative, described organization participants as drug terrorists and called the security forces fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

However, the count of casualties in the operation has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials saying it was "shocked".

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

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

He further explained that the circumstances intensified because the suspects fought back: "It occurred of the resistance they implemented and the excessive violence by those criminals."

The state leader further reported that the casualties presented by community members in Penha were "altered".

Through a message through digital channels, he said that some of them had been taken of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "to redirect responsibility to security forces".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that military attire, body armor, and weapons" were taken away from the bodies and displayed evidence apparently demonstrating a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse