UK NEWS

MARKSMAN: I DID SHOUT OUT 'ARMED POLICE' TO BRAZILIAN

Jean Charles de Menezes: Killed

Tuesday October 28,2008

By John Twomey

A SCOTLAND Yard marksman yesterday said that he did not lie about shouting “armed police” moments before he killed Jean Charles de Menezes.

The officer was accused of making up the story as he “embellished” and “grossly exaggerated” his evidence to justify the shooting of the innocent Brazilian.

But he insisted that he yelled the warning as he confronted Mr de Menezes, 27, in a crowded Tube train the day after the failed July 21 bomb attacks.

The officer, known only as C12, told the inquest into the death that he distinctly remembered shouting “armed police” although no witness – police or civilian – backs him up.

He said he thought: “Why the hell did I challenge him?”

During fierce questioning by Michael Mansfield QC, the officer was accused of fabricating his testimony to explain why he believed that Mr de Menezes was failed bomber Hussain Osman and was about to explode a device.

Mr Mansfield, representing the de Menezes family, pointed out that the yelled warning would have been a “disastrous mistake” if the Brazilian had been a terrorist.

As C12 sat only feet away from Mr de Menezes’s relatives, Mr Mansfield said: “I want to give you another opportunity – and it may be your last opportunity – to face a certain reality.

“That you shot an innocent man who you had not properly assessed, who you never gave any chance to, because you were consumed with the thought of what he might have done the previous day.”

C12 insisted: “I did challenge ‘armed police’. I distinctly remember doing it.”

The marksman acknowledged that fear played a part in his actions as he opened fire on July 22, 2005, adding: “I thought I was going to die and I took action to stop that.”

C12 said that he shot Mr de Menezes more than once at Stockwell Tube station “to make sure life was extinct. I had to incapacitate instantly”.

The London inquest has heard that Mr de Menezes was mistaken for Osman after leaving his home in a block of flats in Tulse Hill, south London, where detectives feared the failed bomber might be hiding. The inquest continues.