Brazilian shot eight times by UK police, ITV report

LONDON - The fate of a Brazilian electrician shot dead by British police was sealed the moment he was wrongly identified in a bungled surveillance operation as a possible suicide bomber, British Television programme ITV News said.

ITV News obtained what it said were secret documents and photographs from the shooting on July 22 of Jean Charles de Menezes, killed the day after four would-be bombers failed in attacks on London's transport system.

CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts cited by ITV News showed that the Brazilian was not wearing a padded jacket and walked calmly through the underground station barriers -- contrary to initial reports that he was running and had a bulky jacket that could have concealed a bomb.

Firearms officers had been given clearance to kill de Menezes but, as they sped towards the underground railway station, he apparently seemed completely unaware that he was being tailed, ITV News said.

According to witness accounts and statements made by police officers involved, de Menezes boarded the train and was restrained by a surveillance officer before he was shot eight times.

ITV News said there was a catastrophic failure in the surveillance operation when officers wrongly believed de Menezes could have been one of the failed bombers.

The failed July 21 attacks came two weeks after four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in attacks on three London trains and a bus.

Police declined to comment on the ITV report while the mistaken killing is still being investigated.

- REUTERS