Name: How Brazil’s deadliest police raid turned into a bloodbath
Uploaded: 2025-12-21T15:53:34.816Z
Duration: 3 min 23 s
Description: Officials called the operation a success and promised more of its kind. A Reuters review of depositions from eight senior officers, witness interviews, police reports and video evidence paints a less positive picture.

Officials called the operation a success and promised more of its kind. A Reuters review of depositions from eight senior officers, witness interviews, police reports and video evidence paints a less positive picture.

Rio de Janeiro

A police raid in northern Rio de Janeiro aimed at dismantling the Comando Romelo gang resulted in at least 121 deaths, making it the deadliest police operation in Brazil's history. Official statements declared the raid a success, but a Reuters investigation based on police reports, witness accounts, and video evidence revealed that leaks allowed gang leaders to escape, and the operation devolved into a prolonged firefight.

Despite the heavy police presence and significant casualties, gang leadership remained intact and the raid did not break the gang's control over the community. Civil rights groups and local officials have called for the release of unedited police footage, as questions persist about the conduct and effectiveness of the operation.

How Brazil’s deadliest police raid turned into a bloodbath

An October police raid in northern Rio de Janeiro became the deadliest in Brazil's history after leaving more than 120 people dead. The operation was designed to neutralize the local leadership of the Comando Romelo gang, and officials called it a success. But a Reuters review of depositions from eight senior officers, witness interviews, police reports and video evidence paints a different picture. Leaks sent suspects fleeing. Police fell into a deadly trap that forced a rescue mission. And gang leadership emerged unscathed. Just after midnight on October 28th, a group of police officers were startled by roughly 20 armed men on motorcycles fleeing the Alemão favela, one of Comando Romelo's headquarters. A shootout broke out. Two of the men were hit and told officers as they lay dying that the group had quote leaked information that police were closing in and they were looking to escape, according to a police report seen by Reuters. A couple of hours later, fireworks rang out over Alemão and the neighboring Pena favela, a common way of warning that police are approaching, two residents told Reuters. People started taking shelter. Around 4am, over a dozen police vehicles dumped hundreds of officers into the favela complex. Gang members set fire to rolls of tires and old cars to block Pena's wider streets. By the time police rolled in, gang leader Edgar Alves de Andrade, known as Doca, and his closest lieutenants may have known they were coming for days. Police pressed ahead with plans to serve warrants at Doca's home, where the Comando Romelo was thought to have stashed weapons, drugs and accounting records. Around 9am, officers leading the advance were hit with gunfire from the hillside above, according to police depositions and incident reports. Local police were deployed into the favela to search for suspects and seize evidence. The more militarized B.O.P.E. division took up positions on the surrounding hills of the favela complexes, where some 280,000 people live. Police estimated there were some 500 armed gang members in Pena and hundreds more in Alemão. What resulted was a 17-hour firefight that left at least 121 people dead, including four police officers. A fifth died weeks later from his injuries. A B.O.P.E. captain told prosecutors that their mission, quote, turned into a fight for life. None of the edited footage released by police show what happened that afternoon in detail. Civil rights organizations and public defenders have pressed prosecutors and the Supreme Court to release footage from drones and body cams. Shooting slowed after sunset. People began bringing bodies down to a main street in the community so residents could identify their loved ones. This is Wazen Fajira, a local journalist. They were bringing down cars with corpses inside, pickup trucks, hearses, with three, four or five bodies on top. It was like a scene in a horror movie. Though officers told prosecutors they did not identify any leaks of their plans, some said the decision to employ an extraordinary number of trucks and troops may have alerted gang scouts who follow police movements. A dozen residents, local leaders and government officials told Reuters that the raid had done nothing to break the gang's hold on the community.

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