MENEZES' FAMILY CALL FOR IMMEDIATE HALT TO UK 'SHOOT TO KILL' POLICY
17 August 2005

Documents recently leaked to the press from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), suggest that early reports about facts surrounding the shooting of Brazilian immigrant Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Underground Station in London on 22 July of this year, were littered with untruths.

Perhaps most importantly, the central claim that he had worn a bulky, winter-type coat in summer, thus raising suspicions he might be concealing a suicide bomb vest, appears to be erroneous. Leaked IPCC documents appear to show he was in fact wearing a denim jacket.

It was alleged he had run from police and jumped a turnstyle, while in fact IPCC papers appear to show he walked through the ticketing turnstyle normally, then ran when he saw a train entering the station.

It was initially reported he had been running from and resisting the police when he was shot, but the leaked documents appear to show he was seated in the train carriage awaiting the train's departure, and was in fact restrained by police before he was shot, not 5 times (as in initial accounts) not 7 (as in revised accounts), but 8 times at point-blank range.

According to the BBC's reporting of the new facts, the documents "suggest Mr de Menezes had walked into Stockwell Tube station, picked up a free newspaper, walked through ticket barriers, had started to run when he saw a train arriving and was sitting down in a train when he was shot."

The police had stated that they clearly urged him to stop while running after him, but the IPCC documents indicate no warning was given, meaning Menezes may not have been aware of the police eyeing him until he was restrained and shot. [For more: BBC]