Armed police officer who mistakenly shot and killed harmless Jean Charles de Menezes after failed 21/7 terror assault breaks his 20-year silence in surprising new documentary
The armed police officer who shot and killed innocent Jean Charles de Menezes in the aftermath of the failed 21/7 London terror attack is set to break his silence in a shocking new documentary.
The documentary, titled ‘Shoot to Kill: Terror on the Tube’, will see the anti-terror officer interviewed over his shooting of the Brazilian electrician in a tragic case of mistaken identity.
In the trailer, a voiceover can be heard saying; ‘One of the officers who pulled the trigger will now tell his side of the story’.
Just 27-years-of-age at the time, De Menezes had travelled to the UK in 2002 from rural Brazil in search of better paying work opportunities.
Then, in the summer of 2005, as fear gripped the streets of the nation’s capital in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings just a matter of weeks before, De Menezes was shot seven times in the head by Met Police firearm specialists at Stockwell Tube Station.
Jean Charles de Menezes was shot and killed in a tragic case of mistaken identity at Stockwell tube station in 2005
In the aftermath of his killing, a mosaiced shrine was erected in memory of the innocent Brazilian electrician
De Menezes had been on his way to fit a fire alarm for a customer when he was intercepted by anti-terror police at Stockwell tube station
Just the day prior, four devices had exploded on London’s transport infrastructure, but no one had been injured.
Four terrorists from this plot were identified by authorities who feared that they could strike again at any time.
Whilst watching the apartment complex in which De Menezes lived on July 22, 2005, officers mistook the electrician for one of the terror suspects as he exited the complex to go fit a customer’s fire alarm.
Trailing the young Brazilian, officers tracked him to South London’s Stockwell Station, in which tragedy ensued.
Mistaking De Menezes for one Hussain Osman, the police officer opened fire fearing that the Brazilian was the latest suicide bomber sent to strike London’s transport services.
The officer hit the electrician a total of eight times, seven in the head and one in the shoulder.
In the new Channel 4 documentary ‘Shoot to Kill: Terror on the Tube’, the firearms officer who shot De Menezes speaks out for the first time about the incident
A tube passenger reacts emotionally to the shooting of the innocent De Menezes in the summer of 2005
Now, almost two decades on, the Curious Films documentary is set to send shockwaves throughout the British Policing establishment once again.
During the course of the Channel 4 trailer, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was in power at the time of the shooting, remarks on De Menezes’ death by calling it a ‘tragic accident’.
The documentary will also likely prove even more evocative than originally anticipated, given the recent court case which found another officer not guilty of murder after shooting London gangster Chris Kaba dead.
In the months that followed De Menezes’ killing, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that no officers would be prosecuted for their roles in the Brazilian’s death but the Met Police would be tried for breaching health and safety laws.
In November of 2007, the Met Police were found guilty of endangering the public and fined £175,000 along with an additional £385,000 in costs.
Next, a 2008 inquest rejected the official police line that De Menezes had been killed lawfully but were prevented by the coroner from returning an unlawful killing verdict.
Ultimately, no officer was ever prosecuted over the incident but the force did settle an undisclosed damages claim with the Brazilian’s family in 2009.
