Pictured: Police marksman who shot Jean Charles de Menezes useless is revealed for first time and says he killed harmless man as a result of ‘I used to be 100 per cent satisfied we had been all about to die’
The Scotland Yard marksman who shot an innocent electrician dead when he was mistaken for a suicide bomber has been unmasked for the first time.
The retired firearms officer said he shot Jean Charles de Menezes on a London underground train in 2005 because ‘I was 100 per cent convinced that we were all about to die.’
Firearms officers were only given a ‘ten-second glimpse’ of a grainy photocopy of the real target – failed July 21 bomber Hussain Osman – prior to the botched operation and were not handed copies of his image, he revealed.
Speaking publicly for the first time almost two decades after the tragedy, the former officer choked back tears as he described to a documentary crew the moment he pulled the trigger.
Mr de Menezes had been wrongly identified as Osman as he lived in the same block of flats in Tulse Hill, south London.
The Scotland Yard marksman, named only by his cypher C12, who shot Jean Charles de Menezes dead when he was mistaken for a suicide bomber has spoken for the first time
The former officer thought de Menezes was a threat and said: ‘If I don’t do something now we are all going to die. I knew I had to take that shot.’
C12 said he had suffered in the two decades after the shooting, with the trauma remaining a ‘weeping sore’ on his life
Surveillance teams tracked him from the flats to Stockwell station while on his way to work on July 22, 2005.
The former officer, named only by his cypher C12, vaulted the station’s barriers after bosses had given the go-ahead for armed deployment, instructing: ‘Stop him from getting on the tube.’
He stepped onto the stationary train and a plain clothes surveillance officer discreetly gestured towards Mr de Menezes who was sat in the carriage, he said.
‘He just got up and immediately turned to his right, which is where we were, and came towards us,’ C12 said.
‘At the same time I brought my weapon up and pointed it at his head and I shouted ‘armed police’.
‘At that stage in my head, this person knew who we were. This person was coming forward in order to detonate a bomb and kill us.’
The former officer added: ‘I remember the surveillance officer…was trying to pin his hands so that he couldn’t detonate.
‘I am just expecting an explosion at any moment. He’s going to blow. We are going to die.
‘If I don’t do something now we are all going to die. I knew I had to take that shot.’
C12 said he was initially unable to fire because the surveillance officer was in the way, so he pushed his head to the side with his gun before pulling the trigger.
‘Time seemed to slow down there. I remember seeing the shots going in but having to close my eyes because of the force of the explosion…there was debris coming back,’ he added.
Mr de Menezes had been wrongly identified as failed July 21 bomber Hussain Osman (left)
A picture of Osman, from his gym membership card, which was found in a rucksack at the site of a failed bombing at Shepherd’s Bush
‘There was no elation, there was no shitty high five, there was nothing like that at all. It was just ‘we’ve survived’.’
C12 revealed that he and colleagues were taken back to base but were not permitted from taken off their blood-soaked clothes or showering for hours so as not to break the evidential chain.
Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder the day after a series of failed terror attacks on London’s transport network and two weeks after the July 7 attacks killed 52 people.
A 2006 report found multiple avoidable mistakes contributed to the shooting but the Crown Prosecution Service decided no one should be charged.
Surveillance teams tracked the innocent electrician from his flats to Stockwell station
The documentary explores the circumstances leading up to the death of Mr de Menezes
The release of the documentary comes just weeks after firearms officer Martyn Blake was acquitted of murdering Chris Kaba after shooting him in the head during an enforced traffic stop.
Blake was refused anonymity before his trial, but following the acquittal Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced reforms that would protect the identity of firearms officers charged with such offences.
C12, who has a daughter, said the relief upon learning he would not face criminal proceedings was immense.
‘If you’re charged with an offence, your name, your address, date of birth [are published] and you become public property; your life is over,’ he said.
Medics rush to assist injured victims of the July 7, 2005 bombings that occurred just weeks before Mr de Menezes was shot
Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder two weeks after the July 7 attacks killed 52 people – and just a day after a second failed terrorist attempt
‘And on top of all that, you’re awaiting the potential finding of guilt, and for something of this magnitude you’re probably looking at going inside, so the ramifications are too horrific to even contemplate.’
The Metropolitan Police was fined £175,000 over the botched operation and the de Menezes family agreed an undisclosed settlement with the force in 2009.
C12 said he had suffered in the two decades after the shooting, with the trauma remaining a ‘weeping sore’ on his life.
He said he understood that the de Menezes family were the real victims of the tragedy, but he would not like to meet any relatives of the man he shot.
‘At the moment, the person who I shot I can’t really remember,’ the former officer, who eventually worked for 40 years for the Met said.
‘I don’t remember any facial features, so in a way it’s lessened the potential impact it’s had on me.
‘And I don’t think I would like to open any closets which would make my life a bit unbearable.
‘And I know that sounds really selfish, but that’s how I feel.
‘I have been brutally honest about why we did what we did. And I just hope they are words enough to explain our actions for that day.’
A Met spokesman said: ‘The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is a matter of very deep regret to the Metropolitan Police Service.
‘Our thoughts remain with his family and we reiterate our apology to them.
‘The circumstances around his death… have been subject to numerous public inquiries, including two separate reports by the Independent Police Complaints Commission…
‘The recommendations made by the IPCC were implemented immediately following these reports, and…we continue to proactively improve our processes and policies wherever possible to keep our communities safe.
‘No officer sets out on duty intent on ending a life. Our sole purpose is the complete opposite – the protection and preservation of life – and we have taken extensive action to address the causes of this tragedy.’
Shoot to Kill: Terror on the Tube will air on Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday and Monday.
