News and Politics | October 25, 2008 | 8 comments

Officer who killed Jean Charles de Menezes breaks down at inquest

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/oct/25/jean-charles-de-menezes-trial

Image
mischabarrett
"How would you feel? What would you do? These devices could be concealed around the body, hidden from view. How would you act faced with this type of threat? The whole journey was an extremely emotional one for me ... I remember trying to take in as much information as I could and keep as close as I could to the side of the tube while looking in and trying to pick up any information I could from inside the carriage. It was a free-flowing movement from looking in our direction and standing up, he immediately came towards us and closed down the distance between us. His hands were waist height ... I couldn't understand the reaction. I shouted 'armed police' [and] at the same time brought my gun up from my leg and pointed it at his head area. He continued to move towards me ... it was at that stage I thought: 'He is going to detonate, he is going to kill us and I have to act now in order to stop this from happening ... If I didn't act members of the public would be killed, my colleagues would be killed and I would be killed. I had a duty to protect the public ... Everything I have ever trained for, threat assessment, seeing threats, perceiving threats and acting on threats proved wrong, and I am responsible for the death of an innocent man. That is something I have got to live with for the rest of my life."

The devastated family of Charles de Menezes, killed at point blank range in a tube carriage four years ago as a suspected suicide bomber, were among the people in a court room yesterday where the man's killer gave the above statements from behind a screen. The firearms officer, a police man for 25 years, fired at least three times at the student in the incident which happened just days after the 7th July terrorist bombings. He broke down in tears after three hours of questioning.
  1. groups:
    News and Politics,   Current News UK
  2. tags:
    News and Politics,  Current News UK,  UK,  Terrorism,  4 more
  3.     
    |

8 comments // Officer who killed Jean Charles de Menezes breaks down at inquest

  • emmahill
    • 0
      emmahill  

    • Makes for absolute chilling reading, and really helps to remind us of the atmosphere in those few weeks in July 2005.

      I'm so thankful we live in a country that does not allow the death of an innocent man to go unquestioned.

      It is only right and proper that every man involved be made to justify himself and for every action to be dissected. Only then can we hope to learn from any mistakes made and try to make sure it never happens again.

    • 3 years ago
  • J_0
    • 0
      J_0  

    • I've always hated those who valorised the police officers involved, claiming that although they were misinformed, they honestly thought that they were doing the right thing by killing this man, because ultimately, the most important thing is that they were so heinously misinformed and that the level of disorganisation and misinformation within the Metropolitan police (at the time) was enough to get an innocent man shot to death. The Metropolitan police's reaction to the whole event: lying to the public about the circumstances surrounding de Menezes' death, only further illustrates the complete incompetence and possibly even malevolence involved.

    • 3 years ago
  • scvar
  • J_0
    • 0
      J_0  
    • scvar:

      Well, to be fair, he was entirely innocent, so taking him down at any point would have been wrong, but yes, I see your point: what was the point of supposedly following him if they were going to ultimately wait until seemingly the last possible minute to act upon him. Apparently the police surveillance of him was botched too.

    • 3 years ago
  • Nealeigh
  • rwylie
    • 0
      rwylie  
    • Nealeigh:

      Once you've decided to kill him, you have to make sure he can't move; if he had a vest on just having enough strength to push a button could have killed hundreds of people.

    • 3 years ago
  • DonkeyPong
    • 0
      DonkeyPong  

    • The officer in charge of the operation has got to take responsibility for what happened. From reading the facts on the incident, I can't understand why (if they thought de Menezes was a suicide bomber) did they pursue him for so long without stopping him? They let him walk from his flat and followed him as he boarded a bus. The inaccurate reports that came out about the events on the day of the shooting also didn't help the police.

    • 3 years ago
  • phillyharper
    • 0
      phillyharper  

    • It's a sad tale that demonstrates all too horribly the age of paranoia we are living in. Everyone is a suspect and anyone can be a threat.

      From whichever angle you look at it, it is a truly tragic story.

    • 3 years ago
more from News and Politics:
from the community

top videos