Original Article London Times July 24, 2005 Police shot wrong man Jonathan Calvert and David Leppard Suspect was innocent Brazilian electrician SCOTLAND YARD was forced to admit last night that a man shot five times from close range by police officers was not connected to Thursdays London terror attacks. In a short statement the Metropolitan police described the mans death as a tragedy and expressed regret. He was named as Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician from Brazil who had been working legally in Britain for three years. It is believed he lived with relatives in Brixton, south London. The killing of an apparently innocent man will be a serious setback in what is already a difficult inquiry. As well as pursuing the attempted bombers, police and intelligence services disclosed yesterday that they were hunting up to 30 people thought to have assisted the two terror attacks in London in recent weeks. It has also been disclosed that MI5 has warned Tony Blair that the threat from Al-Qaeda, with the possibility of more suicide attacks, is likely to continue for at least five years. Witnesses to the killing of Menezes described how he was chased into Stockwell Tube station on Friday morning by armed plainclothes officers and killed with shots to the head while lying on the floor of a train. The officers are thought to have feared that Menezes, who was wearing a quilted jacket on a summers day, might have been concealing a bomb. No explosives were found on him. Within hours of the shooting, however, senior officers were saying they were very confident the man had been one of the four bombers who attempted to set off explosives in London on Thursday. Then, as it emerged that the Brazilian was not one of the four, officers suggested he was still linked to the bombings. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said on Friday the shooting was directly linked to anti-terror operations. Even yesterday, hours before Menezess identity was confirmed, security sources said he had been known to police from a recent counter-terrorist investigation. It now appears to be a case of mistaken identity. The body of the electrician, originally from a town north of Rio de Janeiro, was identified by his cousin in Britain, Alex Alves Pereira. Last night Pereira said: What can the police say? They will try to justify this but theres no way. My cousins body had his head blown apart with bullets in the back of the head. He added: Jean came from a tight-knit family. We are all absolutely devastated. Last night police confirmed Menezess identity. A statement earlier in the day had said: We are now satisfied that he was not connected with the incidents of Thursday, July 21, 2005. For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan police service regrets. The Brazilian government said it was shocked and perplexed at the killing and expected a full explanation. Menezes was followed by officers on Friday morning after leaving a block of flats that had been under surveillance in Tulse Hill, south London. The officers were under the control of Gold Command, Scotland Yards major incident centre. Originally, police had said the man walked from a property in Stockwell to the local Tube station. But later the statement was changed to say he had been under surveillance during a three-mile bus journey from his home to the station. They picked him up hoping that he would take them to other people. But as soon as he was seen going towards the Tube they had to take action, a police source said. The armed officers intervened as Menezes entered Stockwell station. Witnesses there say he bolted, leaping over the ticket barrier and running down the escalator, pursued by the plainclothes officers. Mark Whitby, who was on the train, said: As the man got on the train I looked at his face. He looked like a cornered rabbit. He looked absolutely petrified. Whitby said Menezes tripped or was pushed to the floor. One of the police officers was holding a black automatic pistol in his left hand. They held it down to him and unloaded five shots into him. It is not clear why Menezes, who was described as light-skinned, ran from the officers. Gesio de Avila, a friend, last night told how Menezes had been planning to buy a motorbike because of all the disruption to public transport. He added that he did not believe understanding police instructions would have been a problem for Menezes. He had good English, better than mine, said Avila. The police stopped him sometimes, because he used the Underground every day, and asked him some things, and every time they would tell him thank you, and sorry for stopping you. The Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed it will launch an investigation into the death. The police said an inquest would be opened and adjourned. The shooting of an apparently innocent man will cause major disquiet both in the Muslim community and in SO19, the elite firearms unit involved in hunting the suicide bombers. Two firearms officers are facing a murder investigation after being accused over the shooting of Harry Stanley in 1999. Stanley was shot by SO19 after he was seen carrying what officers judged to be a weapon but was in fact a table leg. The case has sparked anger among the officers colleagues who believe they have been made scapegoats. Fridays shooting had inflamed tensions in the Islamic community because it was at first thought the victim was Asian. Baroness Uddin, a Labour Asian peer, said: There is so much scepticism out there because I think while people like myself might have known about the shoot to kill policy, is it not known out there? The Met issued new guidance to firearms officers after 9/11, directing them to shoot a suspected suicide bomber in the head to prevent him detonating any explosive. Writing in todays News of the World, Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, defended what he described as the shoot to kill to protect policy to save innocent lives in a time of unique evil. He added: I have no doubt that now, more than ever, the principle is right despite the chance, tragically, of error. However, Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: We have had many phone calls today from anxious Muslims. It now appears we have have a shoot first, ask questions later policy. A Downing Street spokesman said: The prime minister has said all along he supports all the efforts of police and law enforcement agencies. Police established Menezess identity after armed officers raided a flat in a block in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill. It is believed the flat is in the same block from which Menezes set off on his final journey. Officers fired gas canisters before storming the three-storey building. More than 15 shots were heard. Police were still hunting yesterday for at least three bombers. A police source said two men held at Londons high-security Paddington Green police station after being arrested in Stockwell on Friday were very specifically linked to the investigation. Downing Street sources said one of the two men was among the bombers. Police believe privately that it is likely Thursdays botched attacks were linked to the July 7 suicide London bombings that killed 56 people and injured 700. One line of inquiry is the possibility that two of the men from last weeks attempt went on an adventure holiday in north Wales with two of the suicide bombers from Beeston, Leeds. Police are convinced last weeks failed attacks on stations at Shepherds Bush, the Oval and Warren Street, and a No 26 bus in Hackney Road, Shoreditch, could not simply have been an attempt to copy the earlier atrocities. Detectives say acquiring components and expertise would have taken longer than two weeks to organise. They are hunting between 20 and 30 people believed to have acted as associates to the two sets of attacks. Some of these people will be based here in Britain, some of them will be placed elsewhere, such as Pakistan, sources said. Forensic scientists are still examining the home-made bombs used in both attacks. A police source said the explosives from Thursdays attacks were very similar to the stuff found in Leeds.