I gunned down Jean Charles de Menezes – then was told we'd got wrong man…it was worst moment, says cop in ONLY interview

Scottish Sun

2 days ago

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IT'S almost 20 years since electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead on a packed London Tube carriage in a tragic case of mistaken identity.
The capital was on high alert as four suicide bombers were on the run after a failed attack on the transport system the day before, which saw police and MI5 launch the biggest manhunt of modern times.
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Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by armed police officers at Stockwell Tube Station in a case of mistaken identity on July 22, 2005
Credit: PA:Press Association
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Police followed Jean Charles through the London Underground station, fearing he was a suicide bomber
Credit: Handout
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Two officers – codenamed C2 and C12 - killed Jean Charles with seven bullets to the head
Credit: PA
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Now C2, who fired five shots, speaks for the first time and expresses his sincere regret over the killing
Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd
A terrible error led to armed police officers following Brazilian Jean Charles, 27, onto the London Underground at Stockwell, south London on the morning of July 22, 2005.
Two of them – codenamed C2 and C12 - killed him with seven bullets to the head.
Now C2, who fired five shots, has spoken out for the first time to apologise to his family - admitting he wishes he could turn back the clock.
He tells a Netflix documentary which drops today: "I would say to Jean Charles' family I'm sorry, that I and another officer were put in a position where we killed your son.
"I would do anything to roll back time, to have a different set of circumstances where that didn't happen. That should not have happened.'
In the four-part series - Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 bombers - C2 appears with his face hidden under a baseball cap and a hoodie.
He says: 'I have never spoken about this publicly. This will probably be the only time that I will talk about it, rather than take it to my grave.'
A third firearms officer, Charlie 5, witnessed the killing, and two decades later the events of that fateful morning are burnt into his subconscious.
Just two weeks after four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters and wounded more 700 others on July 7, four terrorists planned to carry out copy-cat bombings on three tube trains and a bus.
But the 21/7 bombers failed to detonate their devices because the hydrogen peroxide mixture they had used as explosive was too weak.
7/7 survivor Dan Biddle and his rescuer Adrian interview
Instead the would-be bombers dumped their backpacks and fled.
A gym membership card left in one of the backpacks led cops to one suspect, Hussein Osman.
Anti-terrorist police and specialist firearms officers quickly had the block of flats in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill under surveillance. Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, also lived there.
'Critical shot'
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On the morning of July 22, Jean Charles de Menezes was followed by code-named officers from his home to Stockwell Station, which had been the suicide bombers' point of entry to the Tube network the previous day
Credit: Handout
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Officers followed Jean Charles down the escalators onto the platform
Credit: Handout
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The body of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot while the Tube carriage was packed with people
Credit: Handout
Police marksman C5, who by then had been on the firearms squad for nearly 10 years, recalls: 'We were told, 'Today you may be called upon to use unusual tactics.'
'I think someone said, 'What do you mean, like critical shot?'
'And he said, 'All I'll say is don't question anything you're told because you will not have the full picture.'
'They gave us already-loaded fresh magazines with hollow-point ammunition.
'We were told that some of the devices could be small, like a suicide vest. It could be a belt with a bomb in it. It could be a coffee jar size that could go in a pocket.
'When we left there, we were under no illusion how dangerous these bombers were.
I have never spoken about this publicly. This will probably be the only time that I will talk about it, rather than take it to my grave
C2
'We were told they were highly motivated, determined and deadly. We were also told we would only be used if one of the subjects was identified as one of the bombers.'
He adds: 'For whatever reason, there had been some sort of cock up in the OP [Operational Support] van.
'Normally they would have had a good opportunity to take a photograph and could have said there and then if it was or wasn't him.'
The other problem was that instructions had to come from a control room at Scotland Yard, instead of the unit's own commanders at SO19 – which led to long delays.
'Edgy'
On the morning of July 22, Jean Charles de Menezes was followed from his home as he boarded a bus to Brixton, where he got off, and then got back on again because the Underground station was closed.
To police surveillance teams he appeared to be acting suspiciously.
He then got off at Stockwell Station, which had been the suicide bombers' point of entry to the Tube network the previous day.
C5 tells The Sun: 'It was looking more and more likely this was the subject. Over the radio he was described as edgy.
'In my head I kept thinking, it's escalating. At some point I felt we would have to intervene.
'Then, of course, we got those immortal words, 'He must not be allowed to get on that Tube under any circumstances'.
In my head I kept thinking, it's escalating. At some point I felt we would have to intervene. Then, of course, we got those immortal words, 'He must not be allowed to get on that Tube under any circumstances'
C5
'We were deployed. As far as we were concerned, it was a positive ID.
'I remember going down the Tube, down the escalators, thinking, we're going to be too late, and the train's going to go in the tunnel, and I'm going to see a big flash, a big explosion.'
C2 remembers: 'He's a minute, maybe two minutes ahead of me. So I had to run.
'I'm thinking I cannot believe that we have allowed this situation to develop.
'We've allowed someone we believe is a suicide bomber into the tube network. To have a device on him. To initiate that device.
'My only way in was to leap over the barrier. I remember chasing down the escalator. I pulled my weapon and I put it behind my back.
Charlie 5 says: 'It was a nightmare scenario because we all knew we'd lose radio comms.
'C2 and C12 were in front of me. We were not shouting 'Armed police'.'
Charlie 5 admits: 'I've been involved in quite a few shooting incidents but nothing like this.
'It was one of those days where you had to step into the arena, deal with what was in front of you and do what needed to be done.'
'Numb'
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Jean Charles' final movements were shown in court
Credit: PA:Press Association
The underground carriage was still standing at the platform. C5 entered through the single door at the end.
He says: 'At the inquest there was only about 17 people shown in the carriage at the time but it was absolutely jam-packed.
'It had been sitting on the platform for probably four or five minutes, and people just kept getting on.
'I remember having to push my way through people moving through the carriage trying to identify the suspect, looking, where is he?
'As I got to the doors my two colleagues were there, so I knew I was in the right carriage. I was aware of someone standing up to the left.'
Shots rang out. C2 says: 'A surveillance officer already in the carriage indicated who the subject was.
'I was convinced we were about to die. I fired and so did my colleague Charlie 12, and I kept firing until I was absolutely certain there was no further threat.
'I could not believe what had just happened. To be frank I was numb with shock because of the horror of what had occurred.
'There was a relief that we were still standing and we had stopped an attack.'
I was convinced we were about to die. I fired and so did my colleague Charlie 12, and I kept firing until I was absolutely certain there was no further threat
C2
C5 adds: 'When the gunshot rang out my first thought was, we were going to blow up. This is it, there's an explosion, we're going to die.
'Then, a fraction of a second later, I thought, we're still here. It was a strange feeling. I felt kind of euphoric. It was weird, this adrenaline feeling of like, we have survived.
'But there was no celebration or anything. We knew we had taken a life. It's a horrible thing.
'I felt for both the officers, C2 and C12, what they had to do.
'In that time, everybody was running off the Tube in mass panic, they were running and leaving their phones.
'We felt we were going on war footing from the bombings. We were under attack. And, you know, I think everyone else did as well.
'People had a heightened sense of what was going on around them. Could there be another bombing and could they be victims of it?'
'Something was not right'
C2 was taken away from the scene in an unmarked police car, while C5 volunteered to stay to help an explosives officer in plain clothes check the body for bombs.
Charlie 5 remembers: 'There were no devices. We laid him on the ground so I could check for vital signs.
'He found a wallet and it had ID in it. The name on the ID was Jean Charles de Menezes.
'It wasn't the name of the subject, so along with the fact that he didn't have a device on him things just didn't seem to add up for me at that time.
'I didn't want to say this to anybody because I didn't want to start rumours, but in the back of my mind I started to feel something was not right.'
C2 says: 'By the time I'd got home I was aware there was speculation regarding the identity of the person I had killed. I didn't get any sleep, and I still had massive tinnitus, a very, very loud ringing in my ears.
"Next day I caught the Tube back to work and I was called into the chief superintendent's office. He told me that the man I shot was completely innocent.
'I can't describe how I felt, it was the worst feeling ever. I killed an innocent man and I now know who that man is.
I can't describe how I felt, it was the worst feeling ever. I killed an innocent man and I now know who that man is
C2
"I am responsible, and I accept responsibility. As a firearms officer ultimately the decision to use force is yours.
"But why were we in that position? Those people in command put me in that position, they also have to answer."
The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge either C12 or C2 with any offence and they returned to duty.
C5, who retired from the police in 2013, says: 'Twenty years on I think about this frequently. It's always in the news somewhere. It is burnt into my subconscious.
'I don't think I have PTSD over it. I was a seasoned firearms officer. My training experience part-prepared me for mentally dealing with things.
'It has taken a lot of processing over the years. I think people forget, we're family men and we're trying to protect the public, not harm them.'
The Metropolitan Police made changes in the wake of the tragic shooting at Stockwell.
C5 says: 'There's a lot more fail-safe put in place in identifying suspects and communications have improved.
'Could it happen again? 'There's always a human element of errors so yes, it's possible, but hopefully not with all the fail-safe they have now.'
Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 bombers is on Netflix from July 1.
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Matozinhos Otone Da Silva and Maria Otone de Menezes, the parents of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, at the scene of the shooting in Stockwell Tube station
Credit: PA
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An emotional Patricia da Silva Armani, cousin of Jean Charles de Menezes, at a press conference around the time of the inquest into his death
Credit: EPA
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Jean Charles's cousin Alessandro Pereira delivers a letter and a photograph to 10 Downing Street
Credit: Reuters