Police in Rio de Janeiro raided the Vila Cruzeiro favela before dawn on Tuesday, setting off a fierce firefight that authorities said killed more than 20 people.
The operation was aimed at locating and arresting criminal leaders, some from other states, police said in a statement.
The statement said that officers were fired on while preparing their incursion, and that one resident had been shot and killed on site.
Photo: AFP
Local media reported that the person was a 41-year-old woman who was hit by a stray bullet.
The police statement said 11 people also were found wounded after the shoot-out and taken to a nearby state hospital, but as the day wore on, residents used their own vehicles to carry more people with gunshot wounds to the same hospital — most of whom were already dead.
The operation was conducted jointly by the military police and federal highway police. Officers seized 16 vehicles and 13 automatic rifles, as well as pistols and grenades, the police statement said.
By late on Tuesday, 21 corpses had arrived at the hospital and seven people were receiving treatment for injuries, the state’s health secretariat said in an e-mailed statement.
That makes the incident one of Rio de Janeiro’s deadliest police operations.
It comes one year after a raid of the Jacarezinho favela that left 28 people dead, prompting claims of abuse and summary executions.
Earlier this year, the Brazilian Supreme Court established a series of conditions for police to conduct raids in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas.
The court ruled that lethal force should only be used in situations in which all other means have been exhausted and when necessary to protect life, and gave police 180 days to install devices to record audio and video on their uniforms and vehicles.
Authorities on Tuesday had sought to intercept gang members outside the neighborhood, which was not possible after police began taking fire, Uira do Nascimento Ferreira, leader of the military police’s tactical unit, told reporters at a news conference.
Outside the hospital, residents of Vila Cruzeiro mourned the loss of family and friends, while some protested.
State public prosecutors said in a statement that they had opened a criminal investigation.
They gave the military police 10 days to provide details about the operation, indicating which officials were responsible for each death and the justification for use of lethal force, the statement said.
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