🔗 Share this article

The photographer

A reporter who witnessed the aftermath of an extensive Brazilian police operation in the metropolitan area has recounted how community members returned with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "continued arriving: the numbers kept rising", the photographer described. They included security forces.

One individual was found without a head - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he explained. Several bodies showed what he described as blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives during the security action targeting an illegal organization - the most lethal operation Rio has experienced.

Bruno Itan reported that residents first notified him to the raid early on Tuesday by community members living in Alemão, who sent him messages alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The photographer went to the healthcare center, where the victims were arriving.

The photographer stated that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the affected area, where the police action were taking place.

"Security forces created a barrier and said: 'Media representatives cannot proceed beyond this point'."

But Itan, who was raised in that neighborhood, reported he managed to make his way into the restricted zone, where he stayed through the night.

He explained during the night, area inhabitants began to search the hillside that separates Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for family members who had been missing since the police raid.

Local people from the Penha area organized the recovered bodies in an open area - the documented evidence reveal the emotions of the people there.

"The violence of it all affected me deeply: the grief of relatives, parents losing consciousness, pregnant wives, crying, furious relatives," the photographer recalled.

Bruno Itan

The state leader of Rio state announced that the massive police operation deploying about 2,500 officers was intended to stopping a gang referred to as Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Originally, state authorities stated that sixty alleged criminals plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed during the action.

Authorities later reported that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to low-income residents, has estimated the total number of people killed to be 132.

Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization is the only criminal group that in the past few years has managed to make territorial gains throughout Rio state.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, together with another major gang, with a background spanning over five decades.

Per correspondent an expert, who has long reported on crime in Rio over many years, the criminal organization "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders joining the organization and serving as "commercial associates".

The gang concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking guns, gold, petroleum products, alcohol cigarettes.

Per law enforcement statements, gang members have substantial firearms and authorities stated that while the action was underway, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of the state, the political leader, described Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and referred to the security forces fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals.

However, the count of people killed during the raid has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "appalled".

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

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We intended to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He continued that the events worsened due to the alleged criminals resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the resistance they implemented and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

The official also said that the casualties displayed by locals in the area were "altered".

Via a statement on social media, he said that some of them had been stripped of military-style attire he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility onto the police".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force also said that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and arms" were taken away from the victims and showed footage apparently demonstrating an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse