Family mourn for Brazilian victim

Relatives and friends of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian man shot by police in London, have expressed their grief, shock and anger at the killing.

His London-based cousin, Alex Pereira, paid tribute to him but sharply criticised authorities for the error.

His grandmother said there was no reason for considering him a terrorist.

The 27-year-old was fatally shot after boarding a train at Stockwell underground station on Friday, a day after failed attacks on the network.


They will be also be asking why someone lying on the floor and apparently offering no resistance was shot, according to eyewitnesses, five times in the head.

link to full article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4711779.stm

Dozens of articles on it here

http://news.google.com.au/nwshp?hl=en&gl=au&ncl=http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3279409

I find this absolutely appalling, yet the moment I heard someone was shot I just knew, deep down, that this would be the outcome. What I want to know is why they didn't even attempt to restrain and arrest him before they nailed five bullets into his head.

People are talking about this split-second decision-making, but to tell the truth, I have heard no good reasons as to why he was seen as an imminent threat. There were no explosive devices on him whatsoever. He was not carrying any weapons, chemical agents... nothing.

Yes, he ran away from cops. One can only speculate on the reasons behind this - though I read in today's Independent that he was actually over here illegally. Is that really punishable by death? :/

It is a tragedy... But what the hell was he doing vaulting over tube station barriers and not stopping when ordered to? (He did speak English) Especially at a time like this?
I confess I do not understand why they did not restrain him once he was down as opposed to shooting him, but at the same time if it was me, I wouldn't blame the police for bringing me down any way they felt posed least risk to the public.

When the Police begin acting as judge, jury and executioner can we conclude that we are losing the war on terror? If the terrorists hate freeedom isn't this what they want?

I am by no means criticizing GB, we have certainly had our share of law enforcement overstepping what used to be their bounds, of course we have made it perfectly legal here for them to do so.

I was going to post a link to the initial reports a couple days ago and decided not to. I am surprised to hear that the man is Brazilian, the Police seemed to think he was South Asian at the time. Maybe racial profiling has some flaws?

He may have been fare evading, he may have committed another crime. He might have just been afraid of police. Whatever happend it is a shame he had to die.

The reports from days ago were certainly interesting.

At first, the Met Police Commissioner Ian Blair was positive that the guy was a suspect in the botched terror attacks last Thursday. Some reports were even suggesting that the guy supposedly had a belt of explosives round his waist.

Then, he was a fifth suspect - who wasn't actually there when the attacks took place but was somehow involved in their organisation.

Now he's in no way linked to the attacks.

Aren't we meant to have faith in authorities at a time like this? Not questioning everything they do, and regarding every word that comes out their mouths as suspect?

I was also extremely surprised to hear the man was of Brazilian origin.

Oh yeah, he did something illegal, now we can shoot him and get off easy.

This bothered me too.

The only possible reasoning I can see behind this action is that the 'suspect' could have had a bomb and it could have been triggered instantly even while being held down and detained and the police were told in such cases that the person should be dead to keep the chance of someone triggering explosives from happening.

Even so, it is very disturbing to think that the police shot him point blank in the head 5 times whilst being held down.

That'll teach Brazilians to travel to/in the UK.

Maybe racial profiling has some flaws?

No way, it's an immaculate, precise system that should not be questioned ever.

[/sarcasm]

He ran, according to his cousin, because he is from a slum area in a town in Brazil, where people in plainclothes, like these officers, chase you down brandishing guns and rob you and shoot you. His cousin also claimed he had been living in London legally for 3 years.


The "bomb belt" described by a witness? This man was a electrician. He probably had supplies on him and was on his way to work.


This is a travesty. Complete incompetence on the part of the police.

If you were on your way to work, and were suddenly being chased by men without uniforms pointing guns at you, I think you'd run too. And anyone who has been in a Tube station knows how loud it gets, so don't tell me that you would stop if they asked you too. You wouldn't hear them tell you they were cops.

If you were on your way to work, and were suddenly being chased by men without uniforms pointing guns at you, I think you'd run too. And anyone who has been in a Tube station knows how loud it gets, so don't tell me that you would stop if they asked you too. You wouldn't hear them tell you they were cops.

This whole thing is similar to the shooting of Amadou Diallo. He was cornered in the vestibule of his apartment building (he had not committed a crime) by four plainclothes officers. Witnesses who heard the shots did not hear the officers identify themselves. He reached into his pocket and the officers fired 41 shots, over 20 hitting him. He had reached for his wallet, he though he was being held up.

I'm not going to blame this guy for running. Whose to say how I would react if several men that I could not identify as police starting coming after me with guns, especially if I wasn't familiar with the culture etc, that has to be scary as ****. He ran like many of us would have, was held down and shot.

I can understand the police feeling they need to do what is necessary to prevent terrorism but if the US and GB are ever inching closer to being authoritarian police states, who is winning the war against terror, the war for freedom?

This whole thing is similar to the shooting of Amadou Diallo.

That is exactly who I thought of when I heard they shot an innocent man in London. :|

Not supporting the police in this instance but comeon. If you are stupid enough to run from the police and jump the barriers with the recent events maybe you should be shot.

But the police were in plain clothes. And it doesn't matter what this guy's reason for running was - the fact remains that the police had tackled him, and were holding him down, and could have easily cuffed him and taken him in for questioning, but instead shot him five times in the head, point blank.

If you are stupid enough to run from the police and jump the barriers with the recent events maybe you should be shot.

What a callous and disgusting thing to say.

Not supporting the police in this instance but comeon. If you are stupid enough to run from the police and jump the barriers with the recent events maybe you should be shot.
:no: People panic. There was absolutely no reason to shoot this guy at all, much less 5 times to the head. The police had suspicions that later proved false, but by acting impulsively on them, they killed an innocent citizen.

when budget cuts come about many police departments trim down their firearms training because it's one of those things where a deficiency isn't apparent for some time.

OTOH: I think the british at least need to air Chris Rock's instructional video, How to not get your ass kicked by the police.

There was absolutely no reason to shoot this guy at allhe ran, maybe their cops should have tasers but this isn' a case where they accidentally shot a deaf brazilian olympic sprinter. the guy was doing something illegal, 3 years isn't FOB.

The police were in plain clothes, and running after the man.... This story is really horrible, and shows how those terrorist attacks affect the reasoning of people....

If you think officers in plain clothes is a terrible idea, wait till you hear this little gem.

The lady (I forget her name right now, I'll post it again when I remember) behind the enforcement of the Shoot-to-Kill policy with regards to terror suspects allegedly also has plans to integrate undercover cops into homeless communities. If this is true, I see a lot more of this sorta **** happening, don't you?

Not supporting the police in this instance but comeon. If you are stupid enough to run from the police and jump the barriers with the recent events maybe you should be shot.

Pitiful.

Being a near-Londoner and irregular Tube-user myself, I see a lot of barrier-jumpers being pursued by station security guards. Would you say that they deserve to be shot too?

yeah...most likely

The only possible reason to shoot him in the head (5 times :brood:) would be if he was a suicide bomber who could easily activate the bomb. They'd been following him from his house I believe. So why let him get all the way into a tube station if they believed he was armed with a bomb? Pretty damn risky.

"Oh sh*t!" say the police.

"I fink we f**ked up Guv" :-/

He ran because his visa was expired.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4713753.stm

Punishable by death, though? Nope.

It's sad that we've allowed terrorism to have this much of an impact on us that we shoot first and ask questions later.

It's even worse that people back up this sort of behavior as justified.

Consider the war on terror lost.