🔗 Share this article

The photographer

A photographer who documented the aftermath of an extensive law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has described how local people returned with badly injured victims of those who had died.

The casualties "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan described. Among them were security forces.

One individual was found without a head - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he reported. Several bodies showed evidence of knife injuries.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid targeting an illegal organization - the bloodiest action the municipality has seen.

The eyewitness explained that he initially learned about the operation in the early hours by community members from the Alemão area, who sent him messages informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.

The photographer made his way to the healthcare center, where the bodies were coming in.

The photographer stated that security forces stopped members of the press from going into the affected area, where the police action were taking place.

"Police officers formed a line and announced: 'The press are not allowed to pass'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, stated he was able to make his way into the restricted zone, where he remained until the next morning.

He described that Tuesday night, area inhabitants began to search the hillside that borders the community of Penha and the adjacent Alemão area for family members who had been missing after the operation.

Local people living in Penha proceeded to place the located casualties in an open area - the photographer's images show the emotions of the people there.

"The harsh reality of it all shook me profoundly: the grief of relatives, women collapsing, expectant spouses, sobbing, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The official of Rio state stated that the massive police operation involving around 2,500 security personnel was designed to preventing an illegal organization referred to as Red Command from increasing their control.

Initially, state authorities maintained that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the operation.

Authorities later reported that early calculations shows that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has put the final tally of people killed to be 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command is the only criminal group which in recent years has been able to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, together with a rival criminal group, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

According to reporter Rafael Soares, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city for years, the gang "functions as a network" with area gang leaders joining the organization and acting as "commercial associates".

The criminal group focuses mainly on illegal drug trade, additionally trafficking weapons, precious metals, energy resources, alcohol cigarettes.

According to the authorities, gang members are well armed and police said that throughout the operation, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.

The governor of Rio state, the political leader, characterized gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and described the four police officers fatally injured in the action as "heroes".

But the number of casualties during the raid has received condemnation from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "appalled".

At a news conference the following day, Governor Castro justified security actions.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We intended to arrest them all alive," he said.

He further explained that the events worsened due to the alleged criminals had retaliated: "It was a consequence of the counterattack they executed and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The governor additionally stated that the bodies displayed by locals in the neighborhood had been "tampered with".

Through a message on social media, he said that particular individuals had been stripped of military-style attire that he stated they possessed "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

A police official from the police department further reported that "camouflage clothing, vests, and arms" were stripped from the bodies and presented video apparently demonstrating a person stripping military attire {off a corpse