The eyewitness
A reporter who witnessed the results of an extensive security raid in Rio de Janeiro has described how community members brought back badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.
The victims "kept coming: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan reported. The total contained security forces.
One individual was discovered headless - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Many also had what appeared to be knife injuries.
More than 120 people lost their lives during the security action against a criminal group - the deadliest such raid Rio has experienced.
Bruno Itan stated that he initially learned concerning the action Tuesday morning by residents from the Alemão area, who contacted him alerting him an armed confrontation was occurring.
The reporter traveled to a local medical facility, where the casualties were arriving.
The photographer stated that security forces stopped members of the press from entering the operation zone, where the security measures were occurring.
"Law enforcement personnel created a barrier and announced: 'The press cannot proceed beyond this point'."
But Itan, who was raised in the area, stated he was able to gain access past the security perimeter, where he stayed through the night.
He described that evening, local residents began to search the hillside that borders Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for relatives who had been missing since the police raid.
Local people living in Penha proceeded to place the discovered victims in a public space - the photographer's images show the response of the gathered crowd.
"The violence of the situation shook me a lot: the pain of relatives, women collapsing, pregnant wives, sobbing, angry family members," the photographer recalled.
The photographer
The state leader of Rio state stated that the large-scale security action involving around 2,500 officers was designed to halting a criminal group called the criminal faction from expanding its territory.
Originally, the Rio state government stated that sixty individuals plus four law enforcement personnel" lost their lives in the raid.
Officials subsequently stated that their "preliminary" count suggests that 117 "suspects" lost their lives.
Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to disadvantaged individuals, has calculated the total number of fatalities to be 132.
Based on expert analysis, the criminal organization stands as the sole illegal faction which in recent years has succeeded to expand its territory throughout Rio state.
It is generally regarded one of the two largest gangs nationally, in company with another major gang, featuring a timeline dating back more than 50 years.
According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting illegal operations in Rio extensively, Red Command "functions as a network" with local criminal leaders joining the organization and acting as "commercial associates".
The gang concentrates largely on drug trafficking, additionally trafficking weapons, precious metals, energy resources, alcohol cigarettes.
According to the authorities, criminal affiliates have substantial firearms and officials reported that throughout the operation, they came under attack via weaponized unmanned aircraft.
The state leader of Rio state, the government representative, described Red Command members as drug terrorists and called the law enforcement personnel fatally injured in the action as "heroes".
But the number of casualties during the raid has received condemnation from UN human rights officials stating they were "appalled".
In a media appearance the following day, Governor Castro defended the police force.
"There was no objective to result in deaths. We wanted to take suspects into custody without harm," he said.
He continued that the situation had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It resulted of the counterattack they implemented and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."
The governor further reported that the casualties presented by community members in the neighborhood were "altered".
Through a message through digital channels, he said that some of them had been stripped of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "to redirect responsibility toward law enforcement".
A police official of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, protective equipment, and weapons" had been removed from the casualties and showed footage seemingly depicting a person cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse
