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Bruno Itan

A photographer who observed the consequences of an extensive law enforcement action in Rio de Janeiro has described how local people brought back mutilated bodies of the deceased individuals.

The victims "kept piling up: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", the eyewitness stated. The total contained law enforcement personnel.

A particular victim had been decapitated - while others appeared "completely mutilated", he explained. Numerous victims displayed what appeared to be blade trauma.

Over 120 individuals were killed during Tuesday's raid against a criminal group - the most lethal operation in the city.

The eyewitness stated that residents first notified him to the raid Tuesday morning by community members living in Alemão, who contacted him alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.

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

Itan explained that law enforcement stopped members of the press from going into the affected area, where the security measures were occurring.

"Security forces created a barrier and declared: 'Media representatives doesn't get past here'."

However, the photographer, who was raised in that neighborhood, stated he succeeded to make his way past the security perimeter, where he continued until the next morning.

He reported that Tuesday night, area inhabitants started looking the hillside that separates the community of Penha and the neighboring Alemão community for relatives whose whereabouts were unknown since the police raid.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood arranged the recovered bodies in a public space - the documented evidence display the reaction of the gathered crowd.

"The violence of the situation impacted me deeply: the pain of loved ones, parents losing consciousness, expectant spouses, weeping, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The eyewitness

The state leader of the region stated that the extensive law enforcement effort deploying about 2,500 officers was designed to preventing a gang called Red Command from growing their influence.

Initially, state authorities claimed that "60 suspects and four police officers" had been killed in the operation.

They have since said that early calculations indicates that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.

Rio's public defender's office, that gives legal support to disadvantaged individuals, has put the total number of people killed at 132.

Per investigative findings, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction that in the past few years has been able to increase its control throughout Rio state.

It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs in the country, in company with a rival criminal group, featuring a timeline extending half a century.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio for years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with neighborhood bosses forming part of the gang and acting as "business partners".

The criminal group engages primarily in drug trafficking, but also smuggles firearms, valuable minerals, energy resources, beverages smoking products.

Based on official reports, criminal affiliates have substantial firearms and police said that during the raid, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The governor of the state, the government representative, described Red Command members as criminal extremists and referred to the four police officers killed in the raid as brave public servants.

However, the count of casualties in the operation has come in for criticism from international human rights authorities expressing they felt "appalled".

At a news conference the following day, Governor Castro supported law enforcement.

"We did not plan to result in deaths. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he stated.

He continued that the events worsened as the individuals had retaliated: "It occurred of the counterattack they carried out and the excessive violence from the gang members."

The state leader also said that the casualties displayed by locals in Penha had been "tampered with".

In a post on social media, he asserted that particular individuals had been taken of military-style attire that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame to security forces".

A law enforcement representative of Rio's civil police force further reported that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and arms" had been removed from the bodies and showed footage apparently demonstrating a man stripping military attire {off a corpse