From the first episode of Death Note:
えー 昨日 新宿(しんじゅく)の繁華街で６人もの人を殺傷した通り魔は今なお 幼児と保育士８人を人質に この保育園に立てこもっております
I'm trying to understand what's going on with the bolded portion "６人もの人を", which I'm assuming means "6 people". I'm assuming the first 人 is the people counter. So what is the もの and the second 人 doing after it?
Why isn't the phrase just
６人を
As it stands now, it sounds like the phrase means
"(6 people things) people"
It’s not もの. It’s a combination of two particles, も and の.
６人もの人を殺傷した
も here indicates that the speaker considers the said number to be large, as explained in this answer.
The following are both correct and neutral (meaning no emphasis) statements, though some might consider the latter a bit redundant.
６人を殺傷した
６人の人を殺傷した
The following is also correct, but it would sound a bit too subjective for something coming from a news reader.
６人も殺傷した
