Colcam

I commented on the shooting of the Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, in this previous post, but was unable to follow it up for various reasons. Apart from police statements suggesting their tactics were satisfactory, and government officials backing up the police line, not much new information emerged anyway - until tonite.

Investigation documents have been leaked and, it seems, Jean Charles did not run from the police, was not wearing a bulky jacket, but rather a thin denim one. He did not vault the barrier in the tube station, and used his swipe card to get through the turnstile. He was walking, and he stopped to pick up a free newspaper before running, unchallenged, to catch the train. He boarded the train and sat in a seat. He was then approached by a surveillance officer who restrained him, pinning his hands. Only after this did an armed officer turn up on the scene. The armed officer then shot Jean Charles eight times, and missed with three other shots. At no time was a warning given.

When Jean Charles left the block of flats he was not positively identified, and the surveillance man who watched him leave did not get video footage of him because he was having a pee. It was not known which flat within the building Jean Charles had exited.

It would appear that this may have been an execution of a man who was already immobilized, and of no danger to the public or the police, and it would also appear that the police, right from the very start, messed this operation up completely, and were somewhat economical with the truth in the following days, including those statements made by Chief Constable Blair.

Surely these findings make the possibility of prosecutions much more likely, and not only of the officer who pulled the trigger.

This LINK to BBC report issued 22.36 tonite.