Police 'regret' tragic mistake

Jean Charles de Menezes (second from right) was pursued and shot by police on a train at Stockwell Station. Picture / Reuters

A young Brazilian electrician shot at point-blank range in the head on a London Tube carriage was a victim of police incompetence, say his grieving family.

Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was killed by police as he tried to board a train at Stockwell, south London, in front of horrified passengers who described him as looking like a "cornered rabbit".

His friends say he had been so concerned about the terrorist attacks on London's public transport that he talked about buying a motorbike to avoid having to catch the Tube.

Police mistakenly followed Mr Menezes on Friday as he left the same apartment block as one of the men suspected of last week's attempted suicide bombing.

His death has raised questions about the adoption of a shoot-to-kill policy by British police, who issued a statement saying they had the wrong man.

"For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets," they said.

London's police chief, Sir Ian Blair, admitted that more people could be shot as detectives hunted down the would-be suicide bombers who tried to bring further carnage to London last week.

He confirmed there was a "shoot-to-kill policy" for tackling suicide bombers and said it would not change, although the death of Mr Menezes was a "tragedy".

After the shooting, police had said Mr Menezes was "directly linked" to the attempted bombings in the city the previous day.

But it soon emerged he had nothing to do with the attempts to blow up three Underground trains and a bus or terrorism in general. His family and friends said there was no reason for police to believe he was a suspect.

Alex Alves Pereira, the dead man's cousin, said: "Apologies are not enough. I believe my cousin's death was the result of police incompetence."

His cousin had nothing to hide. "If he had a bomb with him they had to stop him before he got a bus or Tube. They had time to stop him and make sure. Instead they let him go to the Tube and shot him from behind."

The BBC's correspondent in Brazil, Tom Gibb, said Mr Menezes had lived for a time in a slum district of Sao Paulo and that could explain why he had run from the police.

"The murder rates in some of these slums are worse than in a lot of war zones and that could explain why, when plainclothes officers pulled a gun on him, he may have run away," Gibb said.

His grandmother, Zilda Ambrosia de Figueiredo, told Globo TV that "there was no reason to think he was a terrorist".

In explaining the shooting, police said officers trailed Mr Menezes after he emerged on his way to work from a Tulse Hill house that was under surveillance because of a suspected link to Thursday's attempted attacks.

He caught a bus to Stockwell station where officers followed him inside and ordered him to stop.

Mr Menezes then bolted down an escalator, said witnesses. He boarded the train before being shot five times in the head by an officer with an automatic pistol.

The Brazilian Government said it was "shocked and perplexed" over the death of Mr Menezes, saying he was "apparently the victim of a lamentable mistake".

It expected British authorities to explain the circumstances of the shooting and that the country's Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, would try to arrange a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Robert Ayers, of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said the incident showed police were trying to send a message to terrorists that "we are not messing around".

Aiming for the head not only ensured almost instantaneous death but also avoided the torso, where suicide bombers tended to carry their explosives which could be detonated by a bullet.

Anti-terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp, of St Andrews University in Scotland, said the Muslim community was understandably uneasy about the policy, which was adopted three years ago.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, acknowledged that "the police are under tremendous pressure to apprehend the criminals who are attempting to cause carnage on the streets of London".

But "it's absolutely vital the utmost care is taken to ensure that innocent people are not killed due to overzealousness".

The Independent Police Complaints Commission will investigate the shooting.

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