Bruno Itan
A photographer who observed the consequences of a large-scale security raid in the Brazilian city has recounted how residents came back with badly injured victims of people who lost their lives.
The bodies "kept piling up: the numbers kept rising", the photographer described. Among them were those of police officers.
One individual had been decapitated - while others appeared "totally disfigured", he reported. Numerous victims displayed what he described as stab wounds.
In excess of 120 victims were killed during the security action targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.
The photographer stated that residents first notified him concerning the action in the early hours by community members from the Alemão area, who sent him messages informing him an armed confrontation was occurring.
The reporter traveled to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the casualties were coming in.
Itan explained that security forces prevented journalists from going into the operation zone, where the police action were occurring.
"Law enforcement personnel established a perimeter and declared: 'Journalists doesn't get past here'."
Nevertheless, the eyewitness, who was raised in the community, explained he succeeded to make his way past the security perimeter, where he continued through the night.
He described that evening, local residents began to search the mountainous area that borders the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for loved ones who were unaccounted for following the security action.
Community members living in Penha organized the recovered bodies in an open area - and Itan's photos display the reaction of the people there.
"The violence of it all affected me a lot: the pain of the families, women collapsing, women carrying children, weeping, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.
The eyewitness
The official of Rio state stated that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 security personnel was aimed at halting an illegal organization known as Red Command from increasing their control.
Initially, state authorities maintained that sixty alleged criminals and four police officers" lost their lives in the operation.
They have since said that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.
The legal assistance organization, that offers legal help to disadvantaged individuals, has estimated the final tally of casualties to be 132.
Based on expert analysis, the gang stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has been able to expand its territory in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
It is widely considered among the biggest criminal organizations in Brazil, together with a rival criminal group, and has a history dating back more than 50 years.
Based on reporter an expert, who has been covering criminal activity in the city for years, the gang "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and acting as "operational allies".
The criminal group focuses mainly on drug trafficking, while also dealing in weapons, gold, fuel, liquor and tobacco.
According to the authorities, gang members possess significant weaponry and police said that during the raid, they encountered resistance using drone-delivered explosives.
The state leader of the state, Cláudio Castro, labeled Red Command members as criminal extremists and called the four police officers killed in the raid as courageous individuals.
But the number of fatalities in the security action has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing they felt "horrified".
In a media appearance on Wednesday, the state leader defended the police force.
"There was no objective to cause fatalities. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he stated.
He continued that the events intensified as the individuals had retaliated: "It occurred of the resistance they carried out and the overwhelming response by the illegal group."
The governor also said that the victims displayed by locals in Penha had been "tampered with".
In a post through digital channels, he claimed that certain victims had been removed of the camouflage clothing which he claimed they wore "to transfer accusation to security forces".
A police official representing security forces further reported that tactical gear, body armor, and firearms" were stripped from the bodies and displayed evidence seemingly depicting an individual cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse
