RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of police officers killed so far this year in Brazil's crime-riddled state of Rio de Janeiro reached 100 on Saturday, local media reported.
Sergeant Fabio Jose Cavalcante, 39, was shot and killed during an attempted armed robbery in Sao Joao de Meriti, in the metropolitan area of the capital Rio de Janeiro, according to online daily Extra.
His death brings the homicide rate among both working and off-duty state police officers to one every 57 hours, the highest rate since 2016, when an officer was killed every 53 hours.
Rising crime led the federal government to dispatch some 10,200 military troops and police officers to help cap violence in the state. They were mainly deployed to Rio and its metropolitan area, the country's leading tourism destination.
The state government announced this week it would restructure its Pacifying Police Units, special forces employed since 2008 to combat organized crime within the slums.
Some 843 Rio districts are under the control of organized criminal rings.
