🔗 Share this article

Bruno Itan

A photographer who witnessed the aftermath of an extensive security raid in the metropolitan area has recounted how local people came back with badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.

The casualties "kept coming: the count kept increasing", the photographer reported. They included security forces.

One individual had been decapitated - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he reported. Many also had what appeared to be stab wounds.

Over 120 individuals were fatally injured in the Tuesday operation targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation the municipality has seen.

The eyewitness explained that residents first notified him about the operation early on Tuesday by local people of the Alemão neighbourhood, who reached out informing him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter made his way to a local medical facility, where the victims were coming in.

The photographer stated that the police stopped members of the press from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the police action was under way.

"Police officers created a barrier and said: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in the area, explained he managed to enter into the cordoned-off area, where he stayed until dawn.

He reported that evening, area inhabitants started looking the mountainous area which divides Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members who were unaccounted for following the security action.

Local people from the Penha area proceeded to place the discovered victims in an open area - the documented evidence display the emotions of the people there.

"The brutality of the situation impacted me profoundly: the grief of relatives, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, weeping, furious relatives," the eyewitness remembered.

Bruno Itan

The official of the region stated that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 security personnel was designed to halting an illegal organization referred to as Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

Initially, state authorities claimed that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" lost their lives in the operation.

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

The public legal service, that offers legal help to the poor, has calculated the final tally of people killed to be 132.

Per investigative findings, the gang represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has managed to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, together with another major gang, with a background spanning over five decades.

According to Brazilian journalist a specialist, who has long reported on crime in Rio extensively, Red Command "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses affiliating with the group and becoming "commercial associates".

The gang engages primarily in narcotics distribution, but also smuggles firearms, valuable minerals, petroleum products, beverages smoking products.

Per law enforcement statements, organization members possess significant weaponry and police said that while the action was underway, they faced assaults from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of the region, the government representative, labeled organization participants as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the four police officers who died during the operation as brave public servants.

But the number of people killed in the security action has faced scrutiny from international human rights authorities stating they were "horrified".

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

"There was no objective to kill anyone. We intended to arrest them all alive," he said.

He further explained that the events had escalated because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It resulted of the resistance they executed and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The governor further reported that the bodies shown by residents in Penha had been "manipulated".

Through a message on online platforms, he asserted that particular individuals had been stripped of military-style attire which he claimed they wore "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".

A law enforcement representative representing security forces further reported that "camouflage clothing, body armor, and weapons" were stripped from the victims and showed footage seemingly depicting a man stripping military attire {off a corpse