May 8, 2021 Share
A bloody, hour-long gunbattle in a Rio de Janeiro slum echoed into Friday, with authorities saying the police killed two dozen criminals while residents and activists claimed human rights abuses and a Supreme Court justice hinted at an investigation.
It was just after sunrise Thursday when dozens of officers from Rio de Janeiro state’s civil police stormed Jacarezinho, a favela in the city’s northern zone. They were targeting drug traffickers from one of Brazil’s most notorious criminal organizations, Comando Vermelho, and the bodies piled up quickly.
When the fighting stopped, there were 28 dead one police officer and 27 people described by the police as “criminals.” A day after the raid, Rio police had identified the 48-year-old officer who died, but none of the others killed in the operation.
Dozens killed in Brazilian police raid in Rio de Janiero
May 7, 2021 / 9:41 PM / AP WorldView: At least 25 dead in Brazil raid
Police targeting drug traffickers raided a slum in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, resulting in the fatal shooting of at least one officer and two dozen other people, authorities said. The civil police s press office confirmed the death of the cop and 24 alleged criminals in a message to The Associated Press.
A police helicopter flew low over the Jacarezinho favela as heavily armed men fled police by leaping from roof to roof, according to images shown on local television.
One woman told The Associated Press she saw police kill a badly wounded man she described as helpless and unarmed who they found after he had fled into her house.
David Biller And Marcelo Silva De Sousa
A woman holds a sign that reads in Portuguese: The war on drugs is an excuse to kill black and poor people after a deadly police operation in the Jacarezinho favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, May 7, 2021. A bloody, hours-long gunbattle here echoed into Friday, with authorities saying the police mission killed two dozen criminals while residents and activists claimed human rights abuses. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo) May 07, 2021 - 6:09 PM
RIO DE JANEIRO - A bloody, hour-long gunbattle in a Rio de Janeiro slum echoed into Friday, with authorities saying the police killed two dozen criminals while residents and activists claimed human rights abuses and a Supreme Court justice hinted at an investigation.
More than 600 people were killed by police in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state in the first months of this year, and most were black or biracial.
The raid sought to halt gang recruitment of teenagers, police said in an earlier statement, which also cited Comando Vermelho’s “warlike structure of soldiers equipped with rifles, grenades, bulletproof vests.”
Television images showed a police helicopter flying low over Jacarezinho as men with high-powered rifles hopped from roof to roof to evade officers.
Others didn’t escape.
One resident told the Associated Press how a man barged into her modest home about 8 a.m. bleeding from a gunshot wound. He hid in her daughter’s room, but police came rushing in right behind him.