Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Infoseeker]

It seems the poor buggar only ran as he got to the bottom of the escalators when he heard the train arriving (something I regularly do myself) and that he wasn't aware he was being followed.

It also seems that a couple of witnesses got carried away when they started talking to the press. Wonder what they've got to say for themselves now eh?

Fatal mistakes that cost de Menezes his life

Duncan Campbell and Mark Honigsbaum
Thursday August 18, 2005
The Guardian


At 6.04am on July 22, a surveillance team consisting of undercover police officers and at least one soldier on secondment to the Met arrived to stake out 21 Scotia Road, the entrance to an apartment block in Stockwell, south London. The team had been led to the address by the discovery of a membership card for a south London gym at the scene of the botched attack at Shepherd's Bush underground station the previous day.

The card belonged to Hussein Osman, whose extradition from Italy to Britain in connection with the attempted attack was approved in Rome yesterday. The police had also discovered that a car connected to a "suspected terrorist training camp in Cambria (Wales)" was registered at the same address. For these reasons, the police thought Osman might have been in the flat with another suspect.

One member of the team, using the call sign Tango Ten, began watching the flat at 6.30am. A soldier who had been with the Met for a year, he was equipped with a mini-DV camera which was not permanently recording in order to conserve its batteries. His job was to film people entering and leaving and then compare them against photographs of the suspects.

The crucial point came at 9.33am, when he made these notes in his log book: "I observed a U/I [unidentified] male IC1 [white] 5'8" dark hair beard/stubble, blue denim jacket, blue jeans and wearing trainers exit the block, he was not carrying anything and at this time I could not confirm whether he was or was not either of our subjects."

When Jean Charles de Menezes left the block, the soldier was relieving himself and unable to turn on his camera.

His log report reads: "As he walked out of my line of vision I checked the photographs and transmitted that it would be worth someone else having a look ... I should point out that as I observed this male exiting the block I was in the process of relieving myself ... At this time I was not able to transmit my observations and switch on the video camera at the same time. There is therefore no video footage of this male." At this point there were two surveillance teams around Scotia Road and a firearms team on standby nearby.

As Mr de Menezes left the flat, he was followed by an officer from the second surveillance team. The officer, code-named Hotel One, reported hearing on his radio that Mr de Menezes had got off the bus in Brixton at 9.47am only to reboard at 9.49am - for reasons that are unclear. At 10.02am he got off the bus at Stockwell tube and was followed into the station by several surveillance officers. Each member of the team was given a number with the prefix Hotel.

While he was travelling to the station, his "description and demeanour" was assessed and, believing he matched the identity of a bomber suspect, Gold Command, the operational police command unit, issued an order that Mr de Menezes should be prevented from entering the tube system. Responsibility was now handed to CO19, the firearms squad.

As Mr de Menezes entered the station, CCTV shows him picking up a free Metro newspaper and calmly passing through the barrier. Dressed in a denim jacket, witnesses reported that he apparently only began running as he neared the bottom of the escalator and heard the train arriving. He boarded the train through the middle doors, looked left and right and went to sit down in either the second or third seat facing the platform. The surveillance officer Hotel Three followed him on to the train and sat on his left hand side. Hotel One was by the single door, Hotel Nine was near the double doors.

Hotel One reported: "I could see one of my colleagues, Hotel Nine, on the escalator in front of me ... I walked on to the platform ... and stepped on to the train through the single open door. I was immediately aware of Hotel Three sat two seats to my right facing the platform."

About 10 to 15 seconds later, Hotel Three saw four men moving along the platform: "I immediately identified these men as police officers probably from SO19 and decided to identify the male in the denim jacket, who I followed on to the tube, to them as they appeared to be looking into the carriage as if searching for someone." He walked to the carriage doors. "I placed my left foot against the open carriage door to prevent it shutting ... I shouted 'He's here' and indicated to the male in the denim jacket with my right hand. I then heard shouting which included the word 'police' and turned to face the male in the denim jacket."

According to this officer, Mr de Menezes stood up and walked towards him: "I grabbed the male in the denim jacket by wrapping both my arms around his torso pinning his arms to his side. I then pushed him back on to the seat where he had previously been sitting ... I then heard a gunshot very close to my ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage."

Two members of the public were to become key witnesses. Christopher Wells, a 29-year-old photo processing shop manager, said: "I was coming through the barriers when I saw a man running very fast into the station. Behind him were loads of policemen all carrying weapons. There were at least 20 of them and they had big black guns.

"The man ran towards a large number of people standing around and jumped over the barriers. The police ran after him and jumped the barriers as well, shouting at the crowd to leave immediately. The man carried on running and was followed down."

Sitting in the carriage was Mark Whitby, 47, a water hygiene surveyor from Brixton. "He ran on to the train hotly pursued by three plain clothes officers, one of them wielding a black handgun. As he got on the train, I looked at his face. He looked sort of left and right but basically looked like a cornered rabbit. He looked absolutely terrified."

According to Mr Whitby, Mr de Menezes had half-stumbled and been half-pushed to the floor. Moments later, Mr Whitby saw the officer hold a pistol in his left hand and take aim. "He held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him," he said.

A third witness, Anthony Larkin, described police officers shouting "Get down, get down" and how the man they were pursuing appeared to have "a bomb belt and wires coming out".

According to Scotland Yard, the first Gold Command knew of the shooting was a radio message which said: "Man down."

[keithinkorea]

What a screw up. A terrible event where the police got a bit carried away. Interesting the conflict in different reports of this nasty event of what actually happened.

[waggo]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'd like to know why the police allowed a factually incorrect report stand for so long. (Like the coat thing.)

[waggo]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[waggo]

No..... the terrorists have done their job when they get enough bleeding heart liberal tossers like you to take the moral ground.Its a war!It doesnt matter one bit that the war is in London.In any war innocent people get hurt and that is tough.Its happened.Its sad.The British police are not murderers or amateurs....they are highly trained.
In almost any other country in the world this incident would not be given any precedence given the surrounding circumstances.The fact that it is just goes to show how F*CKED up my country is.

We now have the ridiculous spectacle of an investigation team from Brazil being allowed to come over and 'tut tut' at us.Unbelievable....I say tell them to F*ck off and put a few illegal immigrants on the plane back with them.Save us paying for it.

Brazil!!..where the murder rate on Ipanema beach of 10 year girl prostitues has probably surpassed 'our total of Kills' tenfold since ive been writing this post are actually going to send investigators over to tell us what bad people we are.