Police version of tube shooting challenged

August 17th, 2005 at 16:56 Björn Hallberg

British police challenged over shooting of Brazilian man.

Documents and photographs, obtained by Britain’s ITV news network, appear to wholly contradict plain-clothes police claims that Mr de Menezes was dressed and acting suspiciously, and ignoring police warnings when he was shot seven times to the head on July 22 in front of horrified fellow passengers on an Underground train.

And on arrival at the Underground station, he did not vault the ticket barriers — as subsequently claimed — to evade his plain-clothes pursuers.

Instead, he used his season ticket to get through the barrier, collected a free newspaper and proceeded calmly down the escalators, breaking into a run only when he saw that a train was preparing to depart.

On boarding the train, he was approached by pursuing plain-clothes police officers. One seized him while a second discharged 11 shots from a pistol at point-blank range.

A witness statement from one of the officers on the train claims that he grabbed Mr de Menezes around the body, pinioning his arms, while another officer fired at the man from a distance of about 30 centimetres.

The officer’s statement, perhaps the most damaging of all for Scotland Yard, invites the conclusion that the eight bullets that hit Mr de Menezes — seven of which hit him in the head — were an overreaction to a suspect who had already been overpowered.

Point blank execution. Now the question is why? A simple gaffe or a carefully planned elimination that may or may not have gone according to plan. I don’t see any outcome that could have instilled more fear into the population for instance, if that is indeed the goal.

And even if they did really confuse Menezes with Hussain Osman, does that not say something about the dangers of letting society wield such absolute power and would the alternative not just be Hussain Osman having his brain splattered all over the tube without more than a vague suspicion, or indeed interrogation or a fair trial?

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