They have said nothing about the other seven people killed. Police said 15 victims were suspected drug dealers and a woman was killed by a stray bullet. President Jair Bolsonaro, who has introduced several bills to make it even more difficult to hold abusive police officers accountable, congratulated the “warriors” who conducted the Vila Cruzeiro raid and “neutralized” what he called “thugs.” His message to police was clear: You can continue killing with impunity. Prosecutors closed most of the cases without any charges. The investigations into the Jacarezinho killings lacked basic forensic analysis and witness testimonies. In both instances, police said they opened fire after being shot at. It was the second deadliest police operation in Rio´s history, after a May 2021 raid that left 28 people dead in Jacarezinho, another favela about eight kilometers away. At the end of the carnage, at least 23 people were dead and 5, including a police officer, injured. Over the following 12 hours, casualties kept arriving at a nearby hospital. Schools, health clinics, and shops did not open that morning, and people could not go to work. The story below has been updated.Įarly on May 24, 2022, a military-style operation in Vila Cruzeiro, an impoverished neighborhood in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, forced residents to scramble for cover under volleys of shots. Police said the three additional victims had been killed in a different neighborhood in circumstances unrelated to the police operation.
On May 26, police said the number of people killed during the raid was 23, and not 26, as originally reported.
Relatives bury Gabrielle Ferreira da Cunha, 41, who was killed during a police raid in the Vila Cruzeiro neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 25, 2022.
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