This archive report was first published on 7 May 2021.
On May 6, 2021, a police operation in Rio de Janeiro's Jacarezinho slum turned deadly, leaving 25 people dead, including a police officer, in what has been described as the deadliest police operation in the city's history.
Residents claim that police killed suspects who wanted to surrender and entered homes without a warrant, sparking outrage and allegations of abuse and extrajudicial executions.
Police have denied any wrongdoing, stating that officers acted in self-defence, but human rights groups and residents have disputed this claim, citing evidence of excessive violence and the killing of suspects who were attempting to surrender.
According to eyewitnesses, police officers invaded homes, using disproportionate force, and killed suspects who posed no risk. A resident described the scene, saying, 'There are boys who have been cornered in the house and want to surrender. And the police want to kill them. They have even killed some in front of us.'
Public defender Maria Júlia Miranda visited the favela and reported seeing 'lots of pools of blood... and walls with bullet marks.' She also noted that the scenes of the killings were not preserved, with bodies being removed, and stated, 'On these cases, there was probably an execution.'
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have condemned the police operation, calling it a 'massacre' and a 'long-standing trend of unnecessary and disproportionate' police operations against predominantly poor communities.
The United Nations human rights office has called for an independent investigation, describing the operation as a 'disturbing, over-the-top, lethal operation.'
