A police operation in a poor community in Rio de Janeiro on Friday left eight people dead, according to the state’s military police.
The raid in the Vila Cruzeiro favela was co-ordinated between Brazil’s highway police and the military police. Officers seized automatic weapons, pistols, grenades and kilos of drugs, according to a statement from the military police.
Local media reported that more than a dozen schools and some family health clinics closed because of the gunfire.
One body was laid out on the street under a tarp, and a group of residents gathered nearby waiting to see if belonged to a relative or friend. Some protested against the operation, demanding to see the bodies of those who were killed.
Friday’s raid targeted criminals planning attacks against security forces occupying the Jacarezinho favela, and one person was detained, according to the statement. Jacarezinho is where the state has launched its so-called “Integrated City” initiative that seeks to reclaim territory controlled by gangs – and also the site of a raid last year that left more than two dozen people dead.
Earlier this month, Brazil’s Supreme Court issued a ruling that forces Rio’s state government to institute measures aimed at reducing police killings and violations of human rights, including the development of a plan within 90 days.
The court also ruled that lethal force should only be used only in situations in which all other means have been exhausted and when necessary to protect life, and that police have 180 days to install devices to record audio and video on their uniforms and vehicles.
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