On July 22, 20 years in the past, electrician Jean Charles de Menezes left his residence in Tulse Hill to repair a damaged alarm.
Stopping to choose up a replica of Metro, the Brazilian nationwide descended the steps of Stockwell Tube Station and boarded the following prepare.
Unbeknownst to him, three officers – named solely as Resort 1, 2 and three – sat themselves round him. Moments later, he was shot seven occasions within the head by police, leaving his physique ‘unrecognisable’.
His devastated mum Maria has been pushing for prosecutions ever since, saying her son was ‘educated and civilised’ and ‘at all times revered legislation and order’.
However what occurred in these deadly few moments on the Tube, and why have the officers haven’t confronted any disciplinary measures?
Who did police consider Jean Charles de Menezes was?
They wrongly thought the Jean Charles was a part of the day prior to this’s failed second wave of bomb assaults three weeks after the 7/7 terror assaults.
An tackle in Scotia Highway, Tulse Hill, was written on a fitness center membership card discovered inside one of many luggage the place an undetonated bomb was hidden.
Police carried out in depth surveillance within the space, the place Jean Charles lived in a type of flats together with his two cousins.
As he left to reply to the defective alarm, officers believed Jean Charles regarded just like the CCTV photos of one of many bombing suspects Osman Hussain.
Cressida Dick, who later turned Metropolitan Police Commissioner, ordered Jean Charles be prevented from coming into the London Underground.
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Timeline of Jean Charles de Menezes demise
- 22 July 2005 Jean Charles de Menezes shot lifeless by police at Stockwell Tube station
- 17 July 2006 CPS says no officers will likely be prosecuted, however Met Police will likely be tried for breaching well being and security legal guidelines
- 1 November 2007 Met Police discovered responsible of breaching well being and security legal guidelines and fined
- 22 October 2008 Inquest below manner – coroner guidelines out illegal killing verdict a month later
- 12 December 2008 Inquest jury returns open verdict
- 16 November 2009 Met Police settles damages declare with household
- 10 June 2015 De Menezes household take authorized problem to European Courtroom of Human Rights
- 30 March 2016 Household lose problem over choice to not cost any police officer over the taking pictures
Officers adopted him onto a bus and thought he was appearing suspicious as soon as he arrived at Brixton Station and located it was closed because of the earlier day’s bombings.
Jean Charles boarded the bus once more to Stockwell Station, went all the way down to the platform and received on the prepare.
Why was Jean Charles de Menezes shot?
Firearms officers boarded the prepare, with various accounts of whether or not or not they spoke to the electrician or not.
They’d all sat round him, and when Jean Charles stood up, an officer codenamed Resort 3 grabbed, pinned his arms towards his torso and pushed him again into his seat.
It’s unclear what occurs subsequent. Two officers fired a complete of 11 photographs between them.
Seven of them landed in Jean Charles’s head and his physique was left ‘unreconisable’.
Police mentioned that they had been advised to fireside instantly at suspected suicide bomber’s heads – which the Muslim Council of Britain described as a ‘shoot-to-kill coverage’.
Later investigation discovered the occasion had the ‘hallmarks of a particular forces operation, slightly than a police one’.
What occurred afterwards?
No officers had been prosecuted, however the Metropolitan Police pressure was fined for breaching well being and security legal guidelines.
Jean Charles’s household took the pressure to the European Courtroom of Human Rights in 2016 over the choice to not cost any officers.
However the household misplaced the problem, with the pressure saying the circumstances round his demise ‘got here at a time of unprecedented terrorist menace to London’.
They’ve additionally been topic to quite a few public inquiries, and two separate stories by the Unbiased Police Complaints Fee.
The Met mentioned: ‘No officer units out on responsibility intent on ending a life. Our sole objective is the exact opposite – the safety and preservation of life – and we now have taken in depth motion to deal with the causes of this tragedy.’
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