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An undated family picture shows Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, the 27-year-old electrician who was shot dead by British police on July 22, 2005. Police admitted later that they had shot dead the wrong man as they combed London for four men after attempted bomb attacks on the city's transport system. REUTERS/Menezes family
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LONDON, Aug. 16 - An official investigation was reported Tuesday to have directly contradicted the police account of the killing of a young Brazilian man after the bombing attempts in London on July 21, including the assertion that he had been fleeing officers when he was shot.
The man, Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was shot several times in front of horrified passengers on July 22 on a subway train at Stockwell station, in South London. The killing came a day after four attackers failed to detonate bombs in what seemed to be a copy of the deadly bombings two weeks earlier, and it intensified an already emotional debate over the introduction of armed police units.
At the time, the police said Mr. Menezes wore a bulky jacket on a hot day, began running from officers despite commands to halt, vaulted the ticket turnstile and ran stumbling onto the subway train.
On Tuesday, however, a news report on British television said an inquiry led by the Independent Police Complaints Commission had contradicted every one of those points. The report said that the officers had misidentified Mr. Menezes as one of the failed July 21 attackers and that he was killed even though he walked into the subway station wearing a light denim jacket, did not vault the turnstile and was sitting on the train when the officers moved in.
Neither the police nor the Independent Police Complaints Commission heading the inquiry denied the news report, but both declined to comment substantively on it.
The killing brought alarm from opponents of arming police units and from Muslim groups who feared that officers were singling them out after the July 7 bombings, in which 52 civilians and 4 bombers were killed.
The events at Stockwell station were said to have been captured on closed circuit television cameras of the type that proved central to identifying the bombers on July 21 at other locations, where their explosives failed to detonate properly.
Initial accounts quoting witnesses said the man had been pursued and shot as part of a "shoot to kill" policy intended to prevent potential bombers from detonating their explosives.
The documents broadcast on Tuesday, however, said that the man had not seemed to react to being followed, and that the officers mistakenly identified him as one of the July 21 bombers just as he boarded the train.
At that point, according to the report, one officer suddenly pinned Mr. Menezes and another shot him. The report quoted an unidentified officer as saying: "I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side. I then pushed him back onto the seat where he had been previously sitting. I then heard a gunshot very close to my left ear and was dragged away onto the floor of the carriage."
In a parallel development, Charles Clarke, the home secretary, said Tuesday that the police had found no direct evidence of a link between the July 7 and July 21 attacks.
Separately on Tuesday, the police in Manchester said they had arrested four people on terrorism charges not related to the July bombings.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/international/europe/17london.html?pagewanted=print 17aug2005
Frightened witnesses thought they saw Jean Charles de Menezes, wearing a padded jacket, vault the barrier at Stockwell station and run on to a train. But what they probably saw were plain-clothes policemen in pursuit of a man who was walking slowly on to the Tube.
Yesterday, one of the few people in the same carriage as Mr de Menezes told The Daily Telegraph there were still unanswered questions about what happened.
Mark Whitby, 47, a plumber from Brixton, was sitting on the opposite side of the carriage, five yards down.
"I was reading my paper when I heard shouting. There were three people pushing and shoving and shouting, 'Get down, get out'. I didn't hear 'freeze' or 'get your hands up' or even 'police'.
"They were wearing scruffy street wear. There was nothing to identify them as police. One of them had a black handgun and I saw them bundle a fourth man to the floor. He was wearing a grey baseball cap and thick jacket and I saw the gun pointing at the ground.
"I have thought long and hard about it and I now believe that I could have been looking at the surveillance officer. I certainly didn't see a denim jacket."
Mr Whitby, who has given a statement to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, also revealed that he heard two separate bursts of gunfire.
"I was inside the carriage when the first five shots went off and then I heard another three as I was running up the stairs. I thought, 'There's a gun battle going on'."
At the time Mr Whitby believed he had seen a terrorist pursued by police who tripped and was then thrown to the ground as the plain-clothes officers shot him in the head. He now believes that what he actually saw was the surveillance officer being thrown out of the way as Mr de Menezes was shot.
Chris Wells, 28, a company manager, was among several who said he believed he had seen the suspect vault the barriers - but was probably looking at one of several plain-clothes officers.
Police now need to explain why they did not correct these impressions.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/international/europe/17london.html?pagewanted=print 17aug2005
At 6.04am on July 22, a surveillance team consisting of undercover police officers and at least one soldier on secondment to the Met arrived to stake out 21 Scotia Road, the entrance to an apartment block in Stockwell, south London. The team had been led to the address by the discovery of a membership card for a south London gym at the scene of the botched attack at Shepherd's Bush underground station the previous day.
The card belonged to Hussein Osman, whose extradition from Italy to Britain in connection with the attempted attack was approved in Rome yesterday. The police had also discovered that a car connected to a "suspected terrorist training camp in Cambria (Wales)" was registered at the same address. For these reasons, the police thought Osman might have been in the flat with another suspect. One member of the team, using the call sign Tango Ten, began watching the flat at 6.30am. A soldier who had been with the Met for a year, he was equipped with a mini-DV camera which was not permanently recording in order to conserve its batteries. His job was to film people entering and leaving and then compare them against photographs of the suspects.
The crucial point came at 9.33am, when he made these notes in his log book: "I observed a U/I [unidentified] male IC1 [white] 5'8" dark hair beard/stubble, blue denim jacket, blue jeans and wearing trainers exit the block, he was not carrying anything and at this time I could not confirm whether he was or was not either of our subjects."
When Jean Charles de Menezes left the block, the soldier was relieving himself and unable to turn on his camera.
His log report reads: "As he walked out of my line of vision I checked the photographs and transmitted that it would be worth someone else having a look ... I should point out that as I observed this male exiting the block I was in the process of relieving myself ... At this time I was not able to transmit my observations and switch on the video camera at the same time. There is therefore no video footage of this male." At this point there were two surveillance teams around Scotia Road and a firearms team on standby nearby.
As Mr de Menezes left the flat, he was followed by an officer from the second surveillance team. The officer, code-named Hotel One, reported hearing on his radio that Mr de Menezes had got off the bus in Brixton at 9.47am only to reboard at 9.49am - for reasons that are unclear. At 10.02am he got off the bus at Stockwell tube and was followed into the station by several surveillance officers. Each member of the team was given a number with the prefix Hotel.
While he was travelling to the station, his "description and demeanour" was assessed and, believing he matched the identity of a bomber suspect, Gold Command, the operational police command unit, issued an order that Mr de Menezes should be prevented from entering the tube system. Responsibility was now handed to CO19, the firearms squad.
As Mr de Menezes entered the station, CCTV shows him picking up a free Metro newspaper and calmly passing through the barrier. Dressed in a denim jacket, witnesses reported that he apparently only began running as he neared the bottom of the escalator and heard the train arriving. He boarded the train through the middle doors, looked left and right and went to sit down in either the second or third seat facing the platform. The surveillance officer Hotel Three followed him on to the train and sat on his left hand side. Hotel One was by the single door, Hotel Nine was near the double doors.
Hotel One reported: "I could see one of my colleagues, Hotel Nine, on the escalator in front of me ... I walked on to the platform ... and stepped on to the train through the single open door. I was immediately aware of Hotel Three sat two seats to my right facing the platform."
About 10 to 15 seconds later, Hotel Three saw four men moving along the platform: "I immediately identified these men as police officers probably from SO19 and decided to identify the male in the denim jacket, who I followed on to the tube, to them as they appeared to be looking into the carriage as if searching for someone." He walked to the carriage doors. "I placed my left foot against the open carriage door to prevent it shutting ... I shouted 'He's here' and indicated to the male in the denim jacket with my right hand. I then heard shouting which included the word 'police' and turned to face the male in the denim jacket."
According to this officer, Mr de Menezes stood up and walked towards him: "I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso pinning his arms to his side. I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had previously been sitting ... I then heard a gunshot very close to my ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage."
Two members of the public were to become key witnesses. Christopher Wells, a 29-year-old photo processing shop manager, said: "I was coming through the barriers when I saw a man running very fast into the station. Behind him were loads of policemen all carrying weapons. There were at least 20 of them and they had big black guns.
"The man ran towards a large number of people standing around and jumped over the barriers. The police ran after him and jumped the barriers as well, shouting at the crowd to leave immediately. The man carried on running and was followed down."
Sitting in the carriage was Mark Whitby, 47, a water hygiene surveyor from Brixton. "He ran on to the train hotly pursued by three plain clothes officers, one of them wielding a black handgun. As he got on the train, I looked at his face. He looked sort of left and right but basically looked like a cornered rabbit. He looked absolutely terrified."
According to Mr Whitby, Mr de Menezes had half-stumbled and been half-pushed to the floor. Moments later, Mr Whitby saw the officer hold a pistol in his left hand and take aim. "He held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him," he said.
A third witness, Anthony Larkin, described police officers shouting "Get down, get down" and how the man they were pursuing appeared to have "a bomb belt and wires coming out".
According to Scotland Yard, the first Gold Command knew of the shooting was a radio message which said: "Man down."
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1551317,00.html 17aug2005
Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, tried to halt an independent inquiry into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes just hours after the innocent Brazilian's death, it emerged last night.
Scotland Yard said Sir Ian wrote to the Home Office permanent secretary, John Gieve, to ensure the terrorist investigation took precedence over any Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation.
Later the same day, the Metropolitan Police agreed to hand over the investigation to the IPCC.
Scotland Yard said last night that the letter, which was also sent to the IPCC, was "to clarify the role of IPCC if, as it then appeared, the shooting at Stockwell tube station involved a suicide bomber who had been involved in the previous day's incidents".
It was reported last night that Sir Ian was concerned about the possible security risk posed by an independent inquiry.
Mr de Menezes' legal team accused police of breaching their statutory duty yesterday by not immediately inviting the IPPC to start its inquiry. The family's lawyer, Harriet Wistrich, called for Sir Ian to resign. She is meeting IPCC representatives for the first time today.
With pressure growing for a public inquiry into the shooting after further details emerged of blunders in the police operation, Scotland Yard is also facing increasing criticism over their "shoot-to-kill" policy.
Former Cabinet minister Frank Dobson last night said that Sir Ian's position was "very difficult" because he was partly responsible for people being misled, including Prime Minister Tony Blair. "The public and everyone had been misled by the police not correcting the story that first came out," he told BBC2's Newsnight.
Leaked documents, believed to be from the IPCC inquiry suggest Mr de Menezes was sitting calmly in the Tube carriage, surrounded by surveillance officers, moments before police stormed in and fired eight bullets into him.
According to the documents, an officer grabbed Mr de Menezes, pinned his arms down, and pushed him back on a seat before he was shot. Mr de Menezes's cousin, Alex Alvez Pereira, said: "The officers who have done this have to be sent to jail for life because it's murder and the people who gave them the order to shoot must be punished."
According to a statement in the leaked report, one of the surveillance officers, codenamed Hotel Three, saw four firearms officers approaching the suspect at Stockwell station.
The witness statement said at least three surveillance officers were positioned. "I immediately identified these men as police [firearms] officers probably from SO19 and decided to identify the male in the denim jacket who I followed on to the Tube to them as they appeared to be looking into the carriage as if searching for someone."
Hotel Three stood up and walked to the carriage doors. "I placed my left foot against the open carriage door to prevent it shutting ... I shouted 'He's here' and indicated to the male in the denim jacket with my right hand. I then heard shouting which included the word 'police' and turned to face the male in the denim jacket."
The officer said Mr de Menezes then stood up and walked to within a few feet of him. "I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso pinning his arms to his side. I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had previously been sitting ... I then heard a gunshot very close to my ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage." Mr de Menezes was shot eight times, seven times in the head, once in the shoulder. Three bullets missed him.
Statements from witnesses had said earlier that Mr de Menezes was followed from his flat in Tulse Hill on to the bus that took him to Stockwell station.
Mr de Menezes was mistakenly believed to be linked to the men who tried to detonate bombs in the failed July 21 attacks. Contrary to earlier police and witness statements he was not wearing a heavy jacket and did not run on to the platform.
The documents also reveal details of what officers describe as a " training camp" in north Wales linked to a suspected bomber. The " training camp" in the Cambrian mountains in north Wales is understood to have been used by some of the July 21 suspects for "bonding" sessions.
According to the material, obtained by ITV News, officers are investigating a possible link between the camp and Lampeter University. The university has an Islamic studies centre.
Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, tried to halt an independent inquiry into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes just hours after the innocent Brazilian's death, it emerged last night.
Scotland Yard said Sir Ian wrote to the Home Office permanent secretary, John Gieve, to ensure the terrorist investigation took precedence over any Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation.
Later the same day, the Metropolitan Police agreed to hand over the investigation to the IPCC.
Scotland Yard said last night that the letter, which was also sent to the IPCC, was "to clarify the role of IPCC if, as it then appeared, the shooting at Stockwell tube station involved a suicide bomber who had been involved in the previous day's incidents".
It was reported last night that Sir Ian was concerned about the possible security risk posed by an independent inquiry.
Mr de Menezes' legal team accused police of breaching their statutory duty yesterday by not immediately inviting the IPPC to start its inquiry. The family's lawyer, Harriet Wistrich, called for Sir Ian to resign. She is meeting IPCC representatives for the first time today.
With pressure growing for a public inquiry into the shooting after further details emerged of blunders in the police operation, Scotland Yard is also facing increasing criticism over their "shoot-to-kill" policy.
Former Cabinet minister Frank Dobson last night said that Sir Ian's position was "very difficult" because he was partly responsible for people being misled, including Prime Minister Tony Blair. "The public and everyone had been misled by the police not correcting the story that first came out," he told BBC2's Newsnight.
Leaked documents, believed to be from the IPCC inquiry suggest Mr de Menezes was sitting calmly in the Tube carriage, surrounded by surveillance officers, moments before police stormed in and fired eight bullets into him.
According to the documents, an officer grabbed Mr de Menezes, pinned his arms down, and pushed him back on a seat before he was shot. Mr de Menezes's cousin, Alex Alvez Pereira, said: "The officers who have done this have to be sent to jail for life because it's murder and the people who gave them the order to shoot must be punished." According to a statement in the leaked report, one of the surveillance officers, codenamed Hotel Three, saw four firearms officers approaching the suspect at Stockwell station.
The witness statement said at least three surveillance officers were positioned. "I immediately identified these men as police [firearms] officers probably from SO19 and decided to identify the male in the denim jacket who I followed on to the Tube to them as they appeared to be looking into the carriage as if searching for someone."
Hotel Three stood up and walked to the carriage doors. "I placed my left foot against the open carriage door to prevent it shutting ... I shouted 'He's here' and indicated to the male in the denim jacket with my right hand. I then heard shouting which included the word 'police' and turned to face the male in the denim jacket."
The officer said Mr de Menezes then stood up and walked to within a few feet of him. "I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso pinning his arms to his side. I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had previously been sitting ... I then heard a gunshot very close to my ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage." Mr de Menezes was shot eight times, seven times in the head, once in the shoulder. Three bullets missed him.
Statements from witnesses had said earlier that Mr de Menezes was followed from his flat in Tulse Hill on to the bus that took him to Stockwell station.
Mr de Menezes was mistakenly believed to be linked to the men who tried to detonate bombs in the failed July 21 attacks. Contrary to earlier police and witness statements he was not wearing a heavy jacket and did not run on to the platform.
The documents also reveal details of what officers describe as a " training camp" in north Wales linked to a suspected bomber. The " training camp" in the Cambrian mountains in north Wales is understood to have been used by some of the July 21 suspects for "bonding" sessions.
According to the material, obtained by ITV News, officers are investigating a possible link between the camp and Lampeter University. The university has an Islamic studies centre.
source: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article306614.ece 17aug2005
As leaked documents appear to throw new light on the mistaken shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, BBC News Website looks at the passage of events which led to his death and what followed.
21 July: Two weeks after suicide bombs rocked London, the capital is again targeted
London's transport network is plunged into chaos with stations cleared after attempted bombings on Tube trains at Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush Underground stations and on a number 26 bus in Bethnal Green.
A manhunt is launched for four men suspected of attempting the bombings, later named as Yassin Hassan Omar, Ibrahim Muktar Said, Ramzi Mohamed and Osman Hussain.22 July: Police have been monitoring a flat in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, south London, which they believe is linked to the failed bombings.
At 0930 BST John Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, is seen walking to a bus stop and boarding a bus heading to Stockwell Tube station.
Despite initial reports he was wearing a padded coat, leaked papers suggest Mr de Menezes is in a light denim jacket.
According to a leaked report officers believe his "description and demeanour" matches one of two terror suspects, including the alleged Shepherd's Bush would-be bomber Osman Hussain.
One surveillance officer at the Tulse Hill address says he "checked the photographs" and thinks it is "worth someone else having a look".
He is quoted in the leaked report saying that he was unable to transmit his observations and turn on his video camera at the same time. "I was in the process of relieving myself."
After information is passed through the operations centre, gold command instructs that the suspect be stopped from getting on the Tube.
The operation is moved to "code red tactic" and handed over to CO19.
By 1000 BST CCTV footage shows Mr de Menezes entering the Tube station at a "normal walking pace".
Early accounts of the shooting had described him vaulting over the ticket barriers, running to the Tube train and tripping over before being shot - but leaked evidence states that CCTV pictures show him picking up a free newspaper and slowly descending on an escalator.
He is then said to have run across the concourse to catch a train, boarded, looked left and right and then sat down on the first available seat.
At that point, armed officers are "provided with positive identification", the document says.
Following shouts including the word "police", Mr de Menezes gets up and advances towards the CO19 officers, a surveillance officer is quoted to have said.
A member of the surveillance team describes grabbing him and holding him down.
According to the report, he said: "I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to his side.
"I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had been previously sitting...I then heard a gun shot very close to my left ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage."
Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder, according to the post-mortem examination.
Three other bullets missed their target.
By 1050 BST news of the shooting breaks in the media.
Reports emerge that a suspected suicide bomber has been shot at Stockwell Tube.
One eyewitness says he saw about 20 police officers, some of them armed, rushing into the station before a man jumped over the barriers with police giving chase.
Another witness said the victim looked Pakistani and was wearing a thick winter coat.
He described him as looking like a "cornered fox" as he was "hotly pursued".
The witness said he half tripped and was then shot five times in the head.
At 1150 BST Scotland Yard confirms that the man shot at Stockwell station died at the scene.
At 1600 BST Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair says during a press conference that the shooting was "directly linked" to anti-terror operations.23 July: At 1700 BST Scotland Yard says the victim was not connected to attempted terror attacks on the capital.
A spokeswoman said: "For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets."
It is announced that the death is being investigated by officers from the Metropolitan Police Directorate of Professional Standards and will be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
At 2130 BST Scotland Yard confirms the identity of the victim.25 July: At 1030 BST Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair apologises to Mr de Menezes' family but says there will be no change to the police's "shoot-to-kill" policy.
That afternoon Prime Minister Tony Blair says he is "desperately sorry" about the death of an innocent person.
An inquest in London hears Mr de Menezes was shot eight times.26 July: Protests are staged in Mr de Menezes' home town of Gonzaga, Brazil, in anger at his shooting. They demand arrests are made.
27 July: Four cousins of Mr de Menezes hold a press conference in London demanding an end to the "shoot-to-kill" policy.
One of them Vivien Figueiredo, says she has been told by police her relative was wearing a denim jacket at the time of the shooting and had used his travel card to get through the station.28 July: Mr de Menezes' body is flown home to south-eastern Brazil.
The Home Office announces his visa expired two years ago, a move which is later criticised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
IPCC chairman Nick Hardwick says: "It's entirely irrelevant information. I'm rather surprised the Home Office should issue it."29 July: The funeral is held of Jean Charles de Menezes in his home town Gonzaga.
To coincide, in London a vigil is held in Parliament Square followed by a Requiem Mass at Westminster Cathedral.2 August: Tony Blair is reported to have called the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to express his regrets for the killing and give assurances that there will be an independent probe into the shooting.
17 August: Documents from the IPPC are leaked to ITV news apparently discrediting earlier reports of the shooting.
Mr de Menezes' family again call for the "shoot-to-kill" policy to be suspended and for a public inquiry.source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4159902.stm 17aug2005
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Brazilians Maria Otoni de Menezes (L), 60, and her husband Matozinho Otoni da Silva, 66, hold up photographs of their son, Jean Charles de Menezes, the electrician who was killed by British police in their home in the village of Gonzaga, Minas Gerais State, July 24, 2005. Police admitted later that they had shot dead on Friday the wrong man, named by them as Menezes, a 27-year-old who had lived in London for the past three years, as they combed London for four men after attempted bomb attacks on the city's transport system. REUTERS/Washington Alves |
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Jean Charles de Menezes is seen in a recent undated photo in London. Menezes, 27, was killed Friday, July 22, in London, at the Stockwell subway station as police investigated the series of attempted transit bombings a day earlier and the July 7 attacks that killed 56 people. (AP Photo/Family photo) More on Jean Charles de Menezes |
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