The victims kept arriving - eyewitness describes fatal Rio police raid

Bruno Itan

A reporter who witnessed the results of an extensive security raid in the metropolitan area has reported how local people came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.

The victims "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness described. The total contained security forces.

One individual was found without a head - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he reported. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid the municipality has seen.

Bruno Itan reported that he was first alerted about the operation early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who contacted him telling him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer went to the healthcare center, where the casualties were being brought.

The eyewitness reported that law enforcement stopped members of the press from entering the affected area, where the security measures were occurring.

"Law enforcement personnel formed a line and said: 'The press doesn't get past here'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in the area, reported he managed to enter past the security perimeter, where he stayed until the next morning.

He described that Tuesday night, area inhabitants began to search the hillside that borders the Penha neighborhood from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for loved ones who were unaccounted for following the security action.

Community members from the Penha area proceeded to place the located casualties in an open area - the photographer's images reveal the emotions of those present.

"The violence of what occurred affected me deeply: the grief of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The state leader of the state announced that the large-scale security action with approximately 2,500 security personnel was aimed at preventing an illegal organization referred to as Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

At first, the Rio state government maintained that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" were fatally injured in the operation.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

The public legal service, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has put the final tally of people killed as 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to increase its control throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations in the country, together with another major gang, and has a history extending half a century.

Per correspondent an expert, who has long reported on illegal operations in Rio over many years, the criminal organization "works as a system" with local criminal leaders joining the organization and becoming "commercial associates".

The organization focuses mainly on drug trafficking, but also smuggles firearms, valuable minerals, energy resources, alcohol and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members are well armed and officials reported that during the raid, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The official of the state, the government representative, described Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and called the four police officers killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the security action has faced scrutiny from international human rights authorities saying it was "shocked".

In a media appearance on Wednesday, the official defended the police force.

"We did not plan to kill anyone. We aimed to detain everyone safely," he stated.

He added that the events intensified as the individuals fought back: "It resulted of the counterattack they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The state leader further reported that the casualties displayed by locals in the area were "altered".

Through a message on online platforms, he asserted that some of them had been removed of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

A police official of Rio's civil police force also said that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and firearms" were stripped from the casualties and showed footage appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse