Man shot dead in Stockwell unconnected to terror inquiry

[QueenOfQuotes]

Just seen a ticker on the BBC website saying that

Oh this is so awful.

well, yes I am Muslim and Asian background.

Many, many years ago I was changing planes at Orly, and I had on this heavy padded overcoat. I was a student then, and to save on unaccompanied baggage costs, I had stuffed my overcoat's pockets with thick books. In the queue someone joked with me, "What do have in your pockets, bombs".

The French security man became terribly tense with his hand on his gun. (They had guns). There was a swarm of their security all over. I was motioned to move out of the queue, and there was well, a lot of searching. There wasn't any exchange of words. Perhaps they knew I didn't speak French.

Anyway, a lot of time elapsed before I was let go. The plane was still waiting.

Guess in today's atmosphere I might have been shot.

well, yes I am Muslim and Asian background.

Many, many years ago I was changing planes at Orly, and I had on this heavy padded overcoat. I was a student then, and to save on unaccompanied baggage costs, I had stuffed my overcoat's pockets with thick books. In the queue someone joked with me, "What do have in your pockets, bombs".

The French security man became terribly tense with his hand on his gun. (They had guns). There was a swarm of their security all over. I was motioned to move out of the queue, and there was well, a lot of searching. There wasn't any exchange of words. Perhaps they knew I didn't speak French.

Anyway, a lot of time elapsed before I was let go. The plane was still waiting.

Guess in today's atmosphere I might have been shot.

You might be right, peacedove.

I was dreading this. How bloody awful. Who was he and does his family know?

My friend used to live in Germany and she has a German mother and Pakistani father and a British passport. Every single time she tried to enter the country, she was kept waiting for a couple of hours while they made phone calls to make sure she hadn't stolen the passport, having first demanded that she produce her parents' birth certificates! That was about 10 years ago - I can imagine it's worse now.

on radio 4 just now (i do trust radio 4) police have apologised for what they call a tragedy. man had nothing to do with the investigation, was not a terrorist and had nothing to do with thursday's bombings. the three things that have resulted in his death were that he came out of a building under surveillance. was wearing a thick coat. and didn't stop when asked to by armed police (panic anyone, i can't be sure i would do the sensible thing when looking down the barrel of several guns).

the got him on the floor and then shot him five times in the head.

what a massive f*ck up.

Awful Sophable and I agree - I can well imagine wanting to RUN if I was ambushed by armed anyone - especially in Stockwell. How did HE know they were police, if it was survellience?

morningpaper, I'm guessing they shot him because they thought he was a suicide bomber - so no warning shot as it would have given him a chance to set off his bomb (or not as the case turned out)

poor bloke's family - I imagine his English was not too good and/or he was guilty of some other offence

Apologies if this is a ridiculously naive question, but if they'd been following him all the way from the house, why on earth wasn't he stopped sooner? Why wait until he was virtually on the tube?

I feel sorry for the officers under orders to shoot him, they must be feeling terrible.

Tragic and very scary...

Good point snafu I'd be interested to know..

How awful for all concerned.

I didn't want to say it, but I had this gut feeling all along that the man was innocent.

I am sure there was no need to pump bullets into a man you have pinned down.

I don't trust security people in any country, in any nation. In most cases, they have misused their authority, and made a bigger mess of things. Just review their performance throughout the world.

Saying you regret an innocent life being taken is not going to bring back a man, a father, a brother, a husband and a son.

The atrocities in this world are committed far more in the name of security than anything else.

Apologies to those whose near and dear ones are working for security.

How is the world ever going to get out of such over-reaction, and panic?

We cant assume they werent doing what they thought was for the best.

If he had been armed with a bomb, I don't think pinning him down would have been much use, peacedove. I think there was most definitely a need for bullets - if he had been armed. But, of course, we now know he wasn't.

And I don't want to get into a row (I have a ds to bath ) but I think you are making some quite sweeping statements about security forces there.

"doing everything for the best" isn't an excuse for trigger-happiness.

Pinochet still maintains he was doing everything for the best of his country.

I cannot recall any murderous dictator not claiming doing everything for the best.

A civil society restrains response and trains its security not to overreact.

We have agreed earlier that police (and I will generalise to most security) have become racist. You remember some of the events of British armymen in Iraq.

Most armymen aren't like that, but people with firepower and authority of the state should be doubly careful, and society should check that it is kept so.

Otherwise there is no difference between the Bush reaction and the British one.

I do think this is a tragic case, but we must must remember that policemen are only human too.
They are all hyped up and I bet to some extent scared.
The fact is, if they hadn't reacted as they did and the man had got to the train and detonated a bomb once he got there, the police would have a hell of a time trying to explain how they let the man get past them when he was under surveillance.
The thruth is, they can't win
I really don't believe this wouldn't have happened had the man dashed over the barriers and launched himself onto a train full of passengers.
This is a sorry, sorry situation but given the circumstances this has to be expected.
I really think if we start hammering the police for these kind of decisions we are making a mistake.

LOts of assumptions there.

it was a mistake and everyone makes them no matter what profession they are in

I don't know who has agreed the police are racist - I don't think they are

Yes it's just occured to me - they were plain clothes police officers/ security people, weren't they? How on earth did the poor bloke know they weren't loony vigilantes wanting to shoot Muslims, or drug dealers who'd mistaken him for someone they wanted to shoot?

So does it appear from news reports that he was just a random person who had absolutely nothing to do with anything? Are the police saying who he actually was?

I don't think you can compare a policeman faced with a suicide bombing suspect to Pinochet's genocide.

This is truely awful - this man was some one special to someone. I'm sure that his family and friends will be horrified at the way he died - imagine if it was one of our DH/DPs or DSs.

I'm horrified at this - totally horrified.

In these difficult times we put a lot of trust in our police and special forces to do the right thing. When it is clear that through incompetance or worse, they are not capable of that then it really leaves you feeling shocked.

My thoughts are very much with this man's family and friends right now