“The criminal faction that controls the region usually carries out invasions in other areas and we had signs that this group would move through the city,” said Uirá Ferreira, commander of the Special Operations Battalion of the Rio PM, who acted in a press conference. in conjunction with the Federal Police and the Federal Highway Police.
The agents say they were shot at by criminals in the upper part of the favela when they were preparing to start the operation, before dawn. Initially, the PM had reported 12 deaths -11 of them “criminals”-, but the number quickly exceeded twenty after bodies were found in an area of closed vegetation, where the clashes occurred.
A neighbor from a nearby neighborhood also died from a stray bullet and seven other people were injured. Throughout the day, the bodies arrived at a nearby hospital loaded in vans or other private vehicles, some with their heads covered with bags, in a climate of tension.
Groups of family and friends, mostly women, crowded into the entrance of the medical center. “You killed him, sons of…” shouted a young woman who could barely contain her anger and pain.
The agents seized 13 rifles, 12 grenades, four pistols and an undetermined amount of drugs, in addition to 20 motorcycles and 20 cars allegedly belonging to the gang.
No arrests were announced.
The Comando Vermelho, which has spread terror since the late 1970s, is responsible for “more than 80% of the armed clashes in Rio,” according to Ivan Blaz, spokesman for the Rio de Janeiro Military Police.
In 2021, 1,356 people were killed by police forces in Rio state, according to the Monitor da Violencia project. Rio, a city with chronic problems of police violence, plans to install some 8,000 cameras on the uniforms of its officers, a project originally planned for May but postponed to June, according to local press.
Source: Ambito
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