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Bruno Itan

A reporter who documented the consequences of an extensive security raid in the Brazilian city has reported how community members brought back badly injured victims of the deceased individuals.

The victims "kept coming: the count kept increasing", Bruno Itan described. The total contained security forces.

A particular victim had been decapitated - additional victims were "completely mutilated", he reported. Several bodies showed evidence of stab wounds.

More than 120 people were fatally injured during the security action targeting an illegal organization - the deadliest such raid the municipality has seen.

Bruno Itan stated that he initially learned about the operation early on Tuesday by community members living in Alemão, who reached out alerting him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer traveled to the healthcare center, where the casualties were arriving.

The eyewitness reported that security forces prevented journalists from entering the Penha neighborhood, where the security measures were occurring.

"Law enforcement personnel created a barrier and said: 'The press are not allowed to pass'."

But Itan, who spent his childhood in the community, explained he managed to make his way into the cordoned-off area, 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 adjacent Alemão area for relatives who were unaccounted for since the police raid.

Community members from the Penha area proceeded to place the located casualties in a square - and Itan's photos show the emotions of the people there.

"The violence of what occurred shook me profoundly: the grief of loved ones, women collapsing, pregnant wives, weeping, outraged parents," the reporter recounted.

Bruno Itan

The official of Rio state declared that the extensive law enforcement effort with approximately 2,500 officers was intended to preventing an illegal organization called the criminal faction from growing their influence.

Originally, local officials claimed that "60 suspects plus four law enforcement personnel" had been killed in the operation.

Officials subsequently stated that initial estimates suggests that 117 alleged criminals were fatally injured.

The legal assistance organization, which provides legal assistance to low-income residents, has estimated the overall count of casualties as 132.

Per investigative findings, Red Command 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.

Experts commonly view among the biggest criminal organizations nationally, in company with another major gang, with a background dating back more than 50 years.

According to correspondent Rafael Soares, with extensive experience documenting criminal activity in the city for years, Red Command "works as a system" with neighborhood bosses joining the organization and becoming "commercial associates".

The organization focuses mainly on illegal drug trade, additionally trafficking guns, precious metals, petroleum products, beverages and tobacco.

Based on official reports, gang members are well armed and police said that while the action was underway, they encountered resistance via weaponized unmanned aircraft.

The state leader of the region, the political leader, labeled Red Command members as criminal extremists and called the security forces who died during the operation as courageous individuals.

But the number of casualties in the security action has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stating they were "shocked".

At a news conference on Wednesday, the official defended the police force.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We aimed to take suspects into custody without harm," he declared.

He continued that the events intensified because the suspects resisted aggressively: "It occurred of the counterattack they executed and the excessive violence by the illegal group."

The governor further reported that the victims displayed by locals in the area had been "tampered with".

In a post on online platforms, he said that some of them had been stripped of the camouflage clothing that he stated they possessed "in order to shift blame toward law enforcement".

A police official of Rio's civil police force additionally stated that "camouflage clothing, vests, and firearms" were taken away from the victims and displayed evidence appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing {off a corpse