Thursday, August 18, 2005

What is the real story behind the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes?

This week the British broadcast news organisation ITV, published a report that revealed the real story behind the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian man who was shot in the head by the British police in July. This is what the report found, according to The Guardian:

'...Menezes was trailed by officers for more than a half-hour before the shooting, and no attempts were made to stop him. The surveillance officer who called in reports about Menezes described him as wearing a denim jacket and carrying nothing.

The Brazilian calmly entered the Stockwell tube station, paused to pick up a free newspaper and used his travel card to pass through the barriers.

After descending the escalator and running to catch his train, Menezes was pointed out to armed police by one of at least three surveillance offices who had followed him onto the train.'

Menezes was shot seven times in the head.

So what was going on? The earlier reports suggested that he was carrying a rucksack, as I remember. These reports also painted a much different description of events (and note how the press jumped on his immigration status - like that has anything to do with his shooting...):

It is believed that Mr de Menezes...may have been working illegally in Britain for up to four years. He is thought to have panicked when confronted by armed men as he was about to buy a Tube ticket at about 10am. Witnesses said that he hurdled the ticket barrier, ran down the escalator and stumbled into a carriage.

Three armed officers who pounced on him, might have thought his padded jacket contained explosives. One of them shot five bullets from a handgun into his head in front of horrified passengers...

One senior source said last night: "We were led to an address in Stockwell by documents found in the abandoned rucksacks and by our intelligence. This house, which now appears to be a multi-occupancy address, was put under surveillance."

Yet, this is what an eyewitness said about the events leading up to the shooting of Menezes:

'[the police officer] held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him.
...He [the suspect] had a baseball cap on and quite a sort of thickish coat - it was a coat you'd wear in winter, sort of like a padded jacket... it looked sort of out of place with the sort of weather we've been having, the sort of hot humid weather....I didn't see any guns or anything like that - I didn't see him carrying anything. I didn't even see a bag to be quite honest.'

Did we all miss something in the panic?? What is going on...?

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