Brazilian did not flee UK gun cops
The Australian -- Daniel McGrory, London -- August 18, 2005
theaustralian.news.com.au
BRITISH police made a series of catastrophic errors that led to armed officers shooting dead an innocent Brazilian when they were hunting the July 21 bombers, leaked witness statements show.
Officers who took part in the botched operation say the Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, was being held by a member of a Scotland Yard surveillance team as he sat on a Tube train before he was shot eight times, the witness statements show.
Documents and photographs from the Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation reveal that one of the undercover team, who was meant to be identifying the shot man, was relieving himself as Menezes left his flat on July 22, so the officer could not tell if they had traced Hussain Osman, one of the alleged bombers.
The police team could have taken Menezes alive, the witness statements suggest.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair will now come under strong pressure to explain how the high-profile police operation went so badly wrong.
An ITV News investigation reports that when Menezes, 27, was challenged by police on the Northern Line train at Stockwell he did not make any aggressive move. Claims by police at the time that the electrician was "behaving erratically" are false, the investigation found.
The blunders began as Menezes emerged from his flat at Tulse Hill in south London at 9.30am. But the undercover officer who was meant to identify anyone leaving the flats had left his post, so he could not communicate observations or take any video footage.
"It would be worth someone else having a look" to ensure police had the right man, he told other officers. But no other member of the surveillance team took a photograph of Menezes, although he had to take a bus to get to the station.
However, a commander at Scotland Yard, who was running the operation, declared a code red and handed responsibility for the arrest to a firearms team.
This armed team had been given photographs of the alleged bombers, but no one realised that Menezes bore no resemblance to any of them.
The report states that the firearms unit had been told unusual tactics might be required and that if they were deployed to intercept a suspect and there was an opportunity to challenge, but the subject was non-compliant, a shooting was authorised.
CCTV footage showed Menezes was wearing a thin denim jacket that could not conceal a bomb, and he was not carrying a bag. Far from running away from police, he did not realise anyone was following him and even picked up a free newspaper before using his season ticket to pass through the station barrier. He began to run only when he saw his train pull into the station.
At the time of the shooting, Scotland Yard said Menezes's clothing and his behaviour at the station added to their suspicions.
It was only when Menezes boarded the train that a surveillance officer guided four armed police into the same carriage.
A man sitting opposite Menezes said: "Within a few seconds, I saw a man coming into the double doors to my left. He was pointing a small black handgun towards a person sitting opposite me.
"He pointed the gun at the right-hand side of the man's head. The gun was within 12 inches of the man's head when the first shot was fired."
And the report reveals that one of the surveillance team members had grabbed hold of Menezes before he was shot.
"I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side," the statement says.
"I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had been previously sitting ... I heard a gunshot very close to my left ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage."
The lawyer for the dead man's family, Harriet Wistrich, said last night there were far more questions than answers about police conduct. The family called for a full inquiry into the killing.
Rosangela Rebelo, a cousin who lives in the dead man's home town of Gonzaga, said: "The family always believed his cousins, who lived with him in London, over the police version of events. I never believed he ran away. The family is still waiting for justice. They killed an innocent man."
. |
