The victims kept arriving - reporter shares lethal Rio police raid

The eyewitness

A reporter who witnessed the aftermath of a massive law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has described how local people returned with mutilated bodies of people who lost their lives.

The bodies "kept coming: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. Among them were security forces.

One individual was discovered headless - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he said. Several bodies showed evidence of knife injuries.

Over 120 individuals lost their lives in the Tuesday operation on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.

The photographer reported that he was first alerted concerning the action in the early hours by local people living in Alemão, who reached out telling him there was a shoot-out.

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

The eyewitness reported that security forces stopped members of the press from entering the affected area, where the police action was under way.

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

However, the photographer, who spent his childhood in that neighborhood, stated he succeeded to enter past the security perimeter, where he continued until the next morning.

He explained that evening, area inhabitants started looking the hillside which divides the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for relatives who had been missing following the security action.

Community members of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the recovered bodies in an open area - the documented evidence reveal the reaction of those present.

"The brutality of the situation shook me profoundly: the pain of loved ones, mothers fainting, expectant spouses, sobbing, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The governor of the state announced that the large-scale security action deploying about 2,500 officers was aimed at stopping a gang called Comando Vermelho from expanding its territory.

Initially, local officials maintained that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" had been killed in the operation.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count indicates that 117 "suspects" were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the total number of fatalities as 132.

According to researchers, the criminal organization represents the unique criminal entity that in the past few years has been able to expand its territory throughout Rio state.

It is generally regarded as a major illegal faction in Brazil, together with a rival criminal group, and has a history spanning over five decades.

Per Brazilian journalist a specialist, who has long reported on criminal activity in the city over many years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and acting as "commercial associates".

The organization focuses mainly on narcotics distribution, while also dealing in guns, gold, energy resources, beverages smoking products.

According to the authorities, gang members are well armed and police said that during the raid, they faced assaults using drone-delivered explosives.

The state leader of the region, Cláudio Castro, labeled Red Command members as criminal extremists and called the security forces killed in the raid as courageous individuals.

Nevertheless, the total of fatalities in the security action has received condemnation from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "horrified".

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

"It wasn't our intention to result in deaths. We wanted to detain everyone safely," he stated.

He added that the events intensified due to the alleged criminals had retaliated: "It occurred of the counterattack they implemented and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The official also said that the casualties displayed by locals in Penha had been "manipulated".

In a post on social media, he said that some of them had been removed of tactical gear he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame onto the police".

A police official from the police department further reported that tactical gear, vests, and arms" had been removed from the victims and showed footage seemingly depicting a person stripping military attire {off a corpse