Home > De Menezes family murder charge call
Police - Repression Attack-Terrorism UK
Relatives of the Brazilian man shot dead by anti-terror police on a London Tube train want them to be charged with murder.
Officers mistakenly thought Jean Charles de Menezes was a suicide bomber, but recently leaked documents show he did not try to run away from police or vault the ticket barrier before they gunned him down at Stockwell Tube station as initial reports suggested.
According to documents obtained by ITV News, the Brazilian entered the station at a normal walking pace and picked up a copy of a free newspaper.
The leaked report also indicated that Mr de Menezes was wearing a light denim jacket and not the heavily padded coat as initially claimed.
Harriet Wistrich, lawyer for the de Menezes family, said they were distressed at the new revelations, calling them "shocking and terrifying" and adding that it raises serious questions about the Metropolitan Police’s shoot-to-kill policy.
The family of Mr de Menezes has called for a public inquiry into the death of the electrician.
On July 22, police had been monitoring a flat in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, south London, which they believed was linked to the previous day’s bomb attempts.
The intelligence operation might have been compromised because an officer on the stakeout operation had been unable to record him on video leaving the building because he had gone to the toilet.
Mr de Menezes left the property before taking a bus to Stockwell tube station, where he was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder by armed police officers. Three other bullets missed.
Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair initially said the shooting was "directly linked" to anti-terror operations but detectives later established he was not connected to attempts to blow up three Underground trains and a bus in the capital the previous day.