"Juliana Conceicao startled awake as the first shots of an infamous day were fired in the Complexo da Penha, the labyrinthine Rio favela where she was born and raised. It was 4.30am on 28 October. Thousands of police had surrounded the community's barricaded entrances and were preparing to swarm up its streets on foot and in black armoured personnel carriers with firing ports and bullet-cracked ballistic windows."
"By nightfall, the father of her six children, Ronaldo Juliao da Silva, would lie dead in a nearby alley one of 122 people killed in the deadliest police operation in Brazilian history. Five of the victims were police. Juliana Conceicao, whose ex-husband, Ronaldo Juliao da Silva, was one of those shot dead during the police operation in the Complexo da Penha. Relatives insist he was not involved in crime."
At 4.30am on 28 October thousands of police surrounded the Complexo da Penha favela and launched a 17-hour operation. Armoured personnel carriers and officers advanced through barricaded entrances while traffickers torched tyres and fired from high positions. Clouds of smoke and heavy gunfire transformed neighbourhoods into battlegrounds. By nightfall 122 people were reported killed, including five police officers. One victim, 46-year-old bricklayer Ronaldo Juliao da Silva, was found with severe cranial and hand injuries near Saint Luke Square as he tried to reach home. Relatives insist he was not involved in crime and mourners described him as a worker and father.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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