Brazil: New Evidence of Serious Police Misconduct in Deadly Raid

(Rio de Janeiro, October 28, 2026) – Police officers tampered with body cameras and obstructed justice during an operation in a low-income neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 28, 2025, Human Rights Watch said in an investigation published today. Evidence indicates police used excessive force and may have intentionally killed scores of men and boys.

The investigation, “‘A Strategy of Death’: Investigating Brazil’s Deadliest Police Operation,” documents Operation Containment (Operação Contenção), in which a total of 122 people were killed. This included two children and four police officers killed that day, and a fifth police officer who later succumbed to his wounds. An additional two men were killed in the early morning before the official start of the operation.