The bodies just kept coming - reporter shares deadly Rio police raid

Bruno Itan

An eyewitness who documented the consequences of a large-scale law enforcement action in the Brazilian city has reported how residents brought back disfigured remains of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the eyewitness stated. They included those of police officers.

One of the bodies was discovered headless - others were "severely damaged", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be stab wounds.

In excess of 120 victims were fatally injured during the security action targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation in the city.

The eyewitness reported that residents first notified him about the operation Tuesday morning by community members from the Alemão area, who sent him messages alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The eyewitness made his way to the healthcare center, where the casualties were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement stopped members of the press from going into the affected area, where the police action was under way.

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

However, the photographer, who was raised in the community, explained he succeeded to gain access into the restricted zone, where he continued until the next morning.

He described that evening, area inhabitants commenced searching the mountainous area which divides 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 organized the recovered bodies in a square - and Itan's photos display the response of the people there.

"The brutality of what occurred impacted me a lot: the grief of the families, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, sobbing, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The photographer

The official of the state stated that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 officers was intended to stopping a criminal group referred to as the criminal faction from increasing their control.

At first, state authorities stated that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" lost their lives in the raid.

Authorities later reported that early calculations indicates that 117 individuals lost their lives.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has put the overall count of people killed to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to increase its control across the region.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, in company with another major gang, and has a history extending half a century.

Per correspondent Rafael Soares, who has been covering illegal operations in Rio for years, Red Command "works as a system" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and serving as "business partners".

The criminal group focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, while also dealing in firearms, gold, energy resources, liquor and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members have substantial firearms and police said that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of Rio state, Cláudio Castro, described gang affiliates as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the four police officers killed in the raid as brave public servants.

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

During a press briefing on Wednesday, the official defended the police force.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We intended to detain everyone safely," he declared.

He added that the circumstances intensified as the individuals fought back: "It was a consequence of the resistance they executed and the disproportionate use of force by the illegal group."

The governor additionally stated that the bodies shown by residents in the area had been "tampered with".

Through a message on social media, he claimed that particular individuals had been removed of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "to transfer accusation to security forces".

A law enforcement representative from the police department further reported that military attire, body armor, and firearms" had been removed from the victims and displayed evidence appearing to show a person stripping military attire {off a corpse