The victims kept arriving - reporter shares lethal Rio police raid

The photographer

A reporter who observed the consequences of an extensive security raid in the Brazilian city has reported how community members came back with disfigured remains of the deceased individuals.

The victims "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", Bruno Itan reported. Among them were law enforcement personnel.

A particular victim had been decapitated - additional victims were "severely damaged", he reported. Many also had what appeared to be knife injuries.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that he was first alerted about the operation Tuesday morning by local people living in Alemão, who reached out informing him there was a shoot-out.

The reporter made his way to a local medical facility, where the bodies were arriving.

The photographer stated that the police blocked media personnel from going into the operation zone, where the operation was under way.

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

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, explained he was able to gain access past the security perimeter, where he stayed until the next morning.

He described that Tuesday night, local residents commenced searching the elevated terrain which divides Penha from the adjacent Alemão area for loved ones whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the discovered victims in an open area - the photographer's images display the response of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation affected me a lot: the grief of relatives, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, sobbing, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The governor of Rio state declared that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 officers was aimed at halting an illegal organization referred to as Red Command from increasing their control.

Initially, local officials maintained that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the operation.

They have since said that early calculations suggests that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has put the total number of fatalities to be 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to expand its territory across the region.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs in Brazil, alongside a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline spanning over five decades.

According to correspondent an expert, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city for years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with area gang leaders affiliating with the group and becoming "business partners".

The gang engages primarily in narcotics distribution, but also smuggles weapons, gold, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

Per law enforcement statements, criminal affiliates have substantial firearms and officials reported that throughout the operation, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the region, the government representative, labeled organization participants as criminal extremists and called the law enforcement personnel who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

However, the count of casualties during the raid has received condemnation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "shocked".

During a press briefing the following day, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"There was no objective to cause fatalities. We intended to detain everyone safely," he said.

He further explained that the situation had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It occurred of the counterattack they carried out and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."

The state leader additionally stated that the casualties displayed by locals in Penha were "altered".

In a post on social media, he said that particular individuals had been taken of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "to redirect responsibility to security forces".

A police official representing security forces further reported that tactical gear, protective equipment, and arms" were stripped from the bodies and showed footage appearing to show a person removing tactical gear {off a corpse