MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Police raid at Rio favela leaves 8 civilians dead

Lieutenant Colonel Uirá do Nascimento Ferreira said the operation was a success although the person against whom the arrest warrant had been issued remained at large

Eight people were killed Friday after a Rio de Janeiro police raid at a local shantytown (favela). The law enforcement agents were trying to execute an arrest warrant against alleged drug trafficking gang leader Chico Bento.

The operation took place in the northern suburb of Vila Cruzeiro, where dozens of police officers from the Rio de Janeiro as well as the Federal Highway forces arrived at 5am local time.

A three-hour shootout ensued, after which eight civilians were reported dead. Their identities have not been confirmed by early Saturday. According to a statement, there was a confrontation during the operation, which left “eight criminals injured who later perished due to the severity of their injuries.”

“The operation was a success. We regret the death of eight people, who could have been arrested, but they did not heed the police's order to stop and resisted our action,” said Lieutenant Colonel Uirá do Nascimento Ferreira, of the Special Operations Battalion of the Militarized Police of Rio de Janeiro, although he admitted that they could not arrest Bento, who has thus become a fugitive.

Businesses and schools near the area had to call it a day at dawn as a precaution.

Rio de Janeiro State's Secretary of Security also said seven rifles, four pistols, 14 grenades and 72 kilograms of cocaine had been seized. The favela was taken over several weeks ago by the Police to increase security in the area. Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (TSF) had demanded measures to bring down police lethality in favelas and gave local authorities 90 days to come up with a plan.

Military Police Secretary Colonel Luiz Henrique Marinho pointed out that the operation was the result of recent intelligence work. “It is an integrated operation between the Military Police and the Federal Highway Police, in addition to intelligence work that was carried out for a few months. The information we had was that members of a large faction were in hiding,” he explained.

He underlined the operation sought to act safely and minimize risks. “We encountered great resistance to advance our objectives, and these elements were probably in that resistance,” he said regarding the deaths.