Officer who shot Jean Charles de Menezes speaks out

A senior firearms officer who shot dead a man wrongly suspected of being a terrorist 19 years ago will speak publicly for the first time in a new documentary.

Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was pinned down and shot in the head by officers at Stockwell station in south London on July 22, 2005, after the July 7 bombings.

The police marksman will appear in Channel 4’s Shoot To Kill: Terror On The Tube after remaining anonymous since the murder.

Alison Pomeroy, the channel’s head of documentaries, said she hoped his personal testimony would “help the British public understand what became one of the biggest crises in the history of British policing”.

She added that the interview would also help people understand “the complexity of the atmosphere in London that summer”.

Mr de Menezesan electrician from Brazil, was followed and shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder at Stockwell tube station by two police snipers who mistook him for a suicide bomber.

Jean Charles de Menezes depicted in a passport-style portrait. He has short black hair, full eyebrows and wears a dark jacket with a pastel green shirt. — In 2006, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that no police officer should be prosecuted over the murder of Mr de Menezes (Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)

The incident followed heightened tensions a fortnight after the London bombings. in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people.

The day before Mr De Menezes was killed by police, would-be suicide bombers again targeted London’s transport network, but their devices did not detonate.

Scotland Yard confirmed that Mr De Menezes was not involved in the attacks the day after his death.

CCTV footage shows the last minutes of Jean Charles de Meneze's life as he walks with other pedestrians on the street outside Stockwell tube station. — CCTV footage has previously shown the final moments of Mr de Menezes’ life as he traveled to South London’s Stockwell Tube Station (CPS).

The documentary will look at the gunslinger’s “understanding of the role of police as ‘goodies vs baddies’” and “the pressure of being at the center of one of the most controversial moments in British policing history ”.

In 2006, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that no police officers should be prosecuted over Mr de Menezes’ murder, but the Metropolitan Police was fined £175,000 with £385,000 costs after being found guilty of endangering the public .

The documentary will be broadcast on November 10 and 11.

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Officer who shot Jean Charles de Menezes speaks out

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