Lifestyle > Train of Thought
Breaking News!!! London police shoot innocent man in head 5 times
Don Seer:
^ really lived at the same place.. LOL.. well thats unfortunate..
no.. most of this came out over the weekend and i only really watch the news mon/tue/weds nights (i go gym thurs niughts on and fri nights/weekends i'm normally not around when the news is on)
UAK:
Jean Charles de Menezes (January 7, 1978-July 22, 2005) was a Brazilian electrician living in Tulse Hill in south London. Menezes was shot and killed by Metropolitan Police officers at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground in a case of mistaken identity. A Roman Catholic from Gonzaga in Minas Gerais, Menezes had lived in the United Kingdom for three years before his death. While his shooting was reported to have occurred as a result of the police investigation into the 21 July 2005 London bombings, it was later revealed that he had nothing to do with the attempted attacks.
Biography
Menezes grew up on a farm in rural Brazil. After discovering an early aptitude for electronics, he left the farm aged 14 to live with his uncle in Sao Paulo in order to further his education. At 19 he had received a professional diploma from Escola Estadual São Sebastião. He entered the UK on a student visa in 2002 which had expired at the time of his death. This, however, has been denied by his cousin. Within 4 months of arriving in the UK he had a good grasp of the English language, and spent his time earning money to send back to his family in Brazil.
Background
The day before the shooting, four attempted bomb attacks were carried out at three locations on the Underground and on a bus in Bethnal Green. The perpetrators had not died in the explosions, prompting a large-scale police investigation with the aim of tracking them down. An address within a three-storey block of flats (containing 9 separate flats) in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, had reportedly been identified from materials found inside the unexploded bags used by the bombers, and at around 10:00 a.m. officers observing the address saw Menezes emerge from the communal entrance of the block, where he lived in a flat with two cousins. The officers were watching three men of Somalian or Ethiopian appearance. Menezes, working as an electrician, had just received a call to fix a broken fire alarm in Kilburn. The officers followed him for 5 minutes as he walked to a bus-stop. He then boarded a number 2 bus - several plain clothes policeman boarded with him. 10-15 minutes later the bus arrived at Stockwell station. At some point he phoned a work colleague, Gesio de Avila, saying he was going to be late due to public transport disruption caused by the previous day's attempted bombings. Outside Stockwell station, police claim he was challenged and ordered to stop.
The officers who followed Menezes were apparently suspicious of his clothing and behaviour; he was also reported as being of South Asian appearance. It was believed that his thick clothing made police officers concerned that he was hiding explosives underneath, and was a potential suicide bomber. The Observer reported that he was dressed in "baseball cap, blue fleece and baggy trousers." Reuters reported Mark Whitby, a witness to the shooting, as saying that he was wearing a large winter coat, and "looked out of place." Another eyewitness, Anthony Larkin, told the BBC that Menezes appeared to be wearing a "bomb belt with wires coming out." No such device was found, but his occupation as an electrician may explain the presence of wires. He was not carrying a toolbag, since he had left it with his work colleague the previous evening. At the time of the shooting, the temperature in London was about 17C/62F [1], which is chilly enough that someone who grew up in a hot climate might well want to dress warmly.
It was reported that the reason he ran away from the policemen was that a few weeks prior to this incident he had been attacked by a gang of criminals. Some have also conjectured that, with Brazil being one of the world's murder hot-spots, it may have been an instinctive reaction by Menezes to turn and run when approached by a group of armed men in plain-clothes. It has since been speculated that he may have run because he was being challenged whilst on the way to work, as his work visa had since expired. [2].
Shooting
Eyewitnesses reported that up to twenty police officers in plain clothes pursued Menezes into Stockwell station, where he jumped over the ticket barrier, ran down an escalator and tried to jump onto a train. He was pushed to the floor of the carriage. Two officers pinned him down, while a third shot him five times in the head and neck with a handgun. He died at the scene.
:-\
There are conflicting reports as to whether the undercover police properly identified themselves, attempted to restrain the man on the floor, and if any verbal warning was given before the man was shot. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair later said, during a press conference, that a warning was issued prior to the shooting and that an air ambulance was called afterwards; however, the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mark Whitby, a passenger on the train Menezes had run onto, said: "one of [the police officers] was carrying a black handgun—it looked like an automatic—He half tripped... they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him." Another passenger, Dan Copeland, said: "an officer jumped on the door to my left and screamed, 'Everybody out!' People just froze in their seats cowering for a few seconds and then leapt up. As I turned out the door onto the platform, I heard four dull bangs." Another witness, Lee Ruston, who was waiting on the platform, said the police made no efforts to identify themselves. Police policy toward suspected suicide bombers had been revised, instructing officers to fire directly toward the head. The claim had been that based on experience abroad, shooting at the chest would possibly explode a bomb belt.
Menezes' cousin, Alex Pereira, who lived with him, asserted that Menzes had been shot from behind: "I pushed my way into the morgue. They wouldn't let me see him. His mouth was twisted by the wounds and it looked like he had been shot from the back of the neck."
Immediately after the shooting the officers involved (from Scotland Yard's SO19 firearms branch) were debriefed and drugs and alcohol tests were taken as a standard procedure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes
TeeRaySix9Teen:
--- Quote from: Mauzip on July 24, 2005, 04:51:39 AM ---Maybe the police thought he could be carrying a bomb and was able to let it go off.
--- End quote ---
maybe the police who shot him should also be shot and killed for such a stupid mistake? why do people put police on such a higher level then all of us. what kind of a mindless pussy would u have to be in order to think that everything the police do is right? lol. if you THOUGHT someone had a weapon and shot them in the head, killing them....u think the "justice system" would have any mercy on u?
Don Seer:
^ we don't have the death penalty here..
and MOST of the time police dont carry arms as guns are illegal here.. so they dont need to..
TeeRaySix9Teen:
--- Quote from: Overseer on July 25, 2005, 09:20:37 AM ---^ we don't have the death penalty here..
and MOST of the time police dont carry arms as guns are illegal here.. so they dont need to..
--- End quote ---
so what punishment do police in London receive for shooting and killing a completely innocent man?
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