Police 'gave no warning' before shooting De Menezes

[Upwind]

see story here

Such an awful tragedy. Has the training of those officers allowed to carry firearms been reviewed? It sounds like they got completely caught up and carried away with terror hysteria and were unable to assess the situation with any objectivity.

You think? Someone's not telling the truth - how can they've shouted "Armed police" as the fire arms witness suggests when two people sat right next to him didn't hear them say anything . Or are the civilian witnesses lying? I am just depressed that a hoax call on a radio show is provoking more outrage!

The police kept changing their story anyway. What happened to the big coat he was wearing so they couldn't see how much explosive he was carrying?. What happened to him vaulting over the barrier and them chasing him and cornering him on the train. Did they ever produce the CCTV footage or was that lost forever?

As far as I can see they followed him for looking 'forrin' and for living in the same block of flats as a 'suspect' and then executed him in front of witnesses and nothing will happen about it.

I thought their claim that they did nothing wrong, but that it might be a breach of health and safety rules was particularly insulting.

Well said.

it's so awful

When it happened loads of us said 'they might not have the right guy' and were SHOUTED down, big time. Doesn't surprise me tbh

"Ms Wilson said: "I thought they were messing around and then I thought they were terrorists and it was only when I left the carriage and somebody moved me gently out of the way that I realised they were good guys."

Asked when she realised it was more serious than people playing a game she told Southwark Coroners court, sitting at the Oval: "When I looked down and there was blood on my hands."

She said that she sat still hoping that the men with guns would not notice her".

Such an horrible event.

Th 'big coat' and vaulting over the barrier was very quikly revealed to have been a complete confusion in the reporting of it. The police said quickly after the event that the vaulting was actually the armed police themselves. There were so many very confused witness reports directly afterwards - as the police will say often happens - and one man interviewed widely by the media outside the tube station on the day was later found to not even have been on the same platform.

The men who shot de Menezes were not decision-makers in any way. They had been told who to shoot - and had had that (erroneously, badly, tragically and incompetently erroneously) confirmed to them on their way into the tube. In that situation, having been told they were after someone who had a bomb and was likely to blow it up on the tube, I'm not sure why they would shout a warning - the potential danger of stopping a suicide bomber is surely to not give the time to detonate.

I think the terrible terrible mistake was by the team that wrongly identified de menezes as the real bomber as he left the flats in Tulse Hill, and then the team that followed him on the bus and re-confirmed it. None of them were the team who shot him.

You are so right onager. the lies that came out from the police when this happened is a disgrace.

Trying to cover their arses saying he had huge padded jacket/vaulted over barrier, etc. Once the CCTV footage came out it was obvious these were total lies. Why should we believe them now when they say they shouted a warning to Jean Charles De Menezes? Sorry, i'm not buying that.

you can read the full transcript of each day of the inquest in full here if you're interested.

Thanks Twinkle, will read through that.