The victims kept arriving - reporter shares deadly Rio security action

The photographer

A reporter who documented the consequences of a massive law enforcement action in the metropolitan area has described how local people brought back disfigured remains of those who had died.

The victims "kept coming: the numbers kept rising", the eyewitness reported. The total contained security forces.

One individual had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what he described as knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives during the security action against a criminal group - the bloodiest action the municipality has seen.

The eyewitness reported that residents first notified him about the operation Tuesday morning by residents living in Alemão, who sent him messages alerting him gunfire had erupted.

The eyewitness went to a local medical facility, where the victims were coming in.

The eyewitness reported that security forces blocked media personnel from going into the affected area, where the operation were occurring.

"Police officers formed a line and said: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."

Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who grew up in that neighborhood, reported he managed to gain access past the security perimeter, where he continued until the next morning.

He explained during the night, community members began to search the hillside which divides Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who were unaccounted for after the operation.

Community members from the Penha area organized the recovered bodies in a square - the documented evidence show the reaction of those present.

"The harsh reality of it all affected me profoundly: the sorrow of relatives, women collapsing, women carrying children, sobbing, furious relatives," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The official of Rio state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort involving around 2,500 officers was designed to preventing a criminal group called Comando Vermelho from increasing their control.

At first, the Rio state government maintained that sixty alleged criminals along with four officers" lost their lives in the operation.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 individuals were fatally injured.

Rio's public defender's office, that offers legal help to the poor, has estimated the final tally of fatalities as 132.

According to researchers, Red Command represents the unique criminal entity which in recent years has managed to increase its control throughout Rio state.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs in the country, together with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.

Based on Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city extensively, the criminal organization "works as a system" with local criminal leaders affiliating with the group and serving as "business partners".

The criminal group concentrates largely on illegal drug trade, but also smuggles guns, precious metals, fuel, alcohol smoking products.

Per law enforcement statements, criminal affiliates are well armed and police said that throughout the operation, they faced assaults via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the region, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as drug terrorists and described the law enforcement personnel killed in the raid as "heroes".

But the number of casualties in the security action has faced scrutiny with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "horrified".

In a media appearance the next day, the official defended the police force.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We aimed to arrest them all alive," he said.

He further explained that the situation intensified as the individuals resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the counterattack they carried out and the overwhelming response by those criminals."

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

Via a statement on online platforms, he said that particular individuals had been stripped of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation toward law enforcement".

A law enforcement representative representing security forces additionally stated that tactical gear, body armor, and firearms" were taken away from the casualties and showed footage apparently demonstrating an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse