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A minimum of 21 individuals have been shot useless and 7 wounded throughout a police raid on a Rio de Janeiro favela to seize the leaders of a drug-trafficking group.
The deaths included a lady who was hit by a stray bullet within the change of gunfire between gang members and police within the Vila Cruzeiro favela.
The demise toll places the incident amongst Rio’s deadliest police operations in current historical past. It comes one 12 months after a raid of the Jacarezinho favela that left 28 individuals useless, prompting claims of abuse and abstract executions. The episode sparked protests and in addition reignited debate over the correct use of police power in Rio, the place a typical native saying is, “A very good legal is a useless legal.”
Simply weeks after the Jacarezinho raid, a stray bullet hit a younger pregnant lady throughout a police raid in one other favela, and her demise prompted additional outrage.
Residents stated on social media that heavy taking pictures started in darkness at 4am in a wooded space subsequent to Vila Cruzeiro, sparking worry and panic within the slum. Gunfire started once more within the afternoon, a Reuters photographer close to the scene stated.
Seven wounded individuals have been taken to a hospital, together with a policeman.
The police operation, backed by a helicopter, focused leaders of Rio’s largest organized crime gang, the Comando Vermelho (Purple Command), who, based on police intelligence, have been hiding in Vila Cruzeiro.
“It was a really intense confrontation,” Colonel Ivan Blaz, spokesman for the militarized police power that led the operation, instructed reporters.
Outdoors an area hospital the place victims have been taken, residents of Vila Cruzeiro mourned the lack of household and pals and protested.
Rio state public prosecutors stated in an announcement they’d opened a legal investigation. They gave the army police 10 days to supply particulars concerning the operation, indicating which officers have been liable for every demise and the justification to be used of deadly power, the assertion stated.
The operation was carried out collectively by the army police and federal freeway police. Police seized 16 automobiles, 13 computerized rifles in addition to pistols and grenades, the police assertion stated.
The useless lady was recognized as 41-year-old Gabriele Cunha, hit by a stray bullet regardless that she lived in a neighboring slum referred to as Chatuba. Faculties didn’t open for courses.
Earlier this 12 months, Brazil’s supreme court docket established a collection of circumstances for police to conduct raids in Rio’s favelas as a way to cut back police killings and violations of human rights. The court docket dominated that deadly power ought to be used solely in conditions by which all different means have been exhausted and when needed to guard life, and gave police 180 days to put in units to file audio and video on their uniforms and automobiles.
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