🔗 Share this article The victims kept arriving - reporter shares lethal Rio police raid The eyewitness Multiple casualties were displayed in a public space in the Rio neighborhood following the most lethal operation Rio has ever seen An eyewitness who documented the aftermath of an extensive security raid in the metropolitan area has described how community members brought back mutilated bodies of the deceased individuals. The bodies "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan reported. They included law enforcement personnel. One of the bodies was found without a head - additional victims were "totally disfigured", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be stab wounds. In excess of 120 victims lost their lives during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the bloodiest action in the city. In excess of 100 suspects were arrested as part of the police action Bruno Itan stated that he initially learned concerning the action Tuesday morning by local people living in Alemão, who reached out alerting him there was a shoot-out. The reporter traveled to a local medical facility, where the casualties were arriving. The eyewitness reported that law enforcement prevented journalists from accessing the affected area, where the operation was under way. "Security forces created a barrier and said: 'Journalists cannot proceed beyond this point'." However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, explained he succeeded to enter past the security perimeter, where he continued until dawn. He reported during the night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside that separates Penha from the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who had been missing after the operation. Residents from the Penha area arranged the recovered bodies in a square - the photographer's images display the response of those present. "The harsh reality of what occurred shook me deeply: the sorrow of the families, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, sobbing, outraged parents," the reporter recounted. The photographer There was trauma in the community as community members recovered additional victims from the adjacent terrain The state leader of the region declared that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 law enforcement members was aimed at preventing an illegal organization referred to as Red Command from growing their influence. Initially, state authorities claimed that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" had been killed in the raid. Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed. The legal assistance organization, that gives legal support to the poor, has estimated the final tally of people killed as 132. Per investigative findings, the gang is the only criminal group that recently has succeeded to expand its territory throughout Rio state. It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in the country, together with another major gang, and has a history dating back more than 50 years. According to Brazilian journalist an expert, who has long reported on crime in Rio extensively, the criminal organization "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and serving as "operational allies". The criminal group concentrates largely on drug trafficking, while also dealing in weapons, precious metals, fuel, beverages and tobacco. Per law enforcement statements, gang members have substantial firearms and police said that during the raid, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones. The official of the region, Cláudio Castro, characterized organization participants as criminal extremists and called the four police officers fatally injured in the action as courageous individuals. However, the count of people killed in the security action has faced scrutiny from UN human rights officials expressing they felt "appalled". In a media appearance the following day, the official justified security actions. "There was no objective to result in deaths. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he said. He added that the situation worsened as the individuals fought back: "It resulted of the resistance they executed and the overwhelming response by the illegal group." The official further reported that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha had been "manipulated". Via a statement on online platforms, he asserted that some of them had been taken of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame to security forces". A police official from the police department additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, vests, and arms" had been removed from the casualties and showed footage appearing to show a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse