De Menezes was not identified as a suspect, says surveillance officer
From The Guardian
A surveillance officer who was tailing Jean Charles de Menezes said today his team made no identification of the Brazilian as a suspect before he was shot by police marksmen.
He tried and failed several times to get clear sight of the man's face before he boarded a bus to Stockwell London Underground station, he told an inquest into the death.
Despite this his team leader was asked by the police control room to give a "percentage" of how likely it was that the man they were tailing was the suspect suicide bomber police believed him to be.
The officer, known only as Ken, said: "I believe he said that it was impossible to do that but 'for what it's worth I think it's him'."
Once De Menezes arrived at the underground station Ken tried again to see his face and told the jury he got a view of the man's right-hand side for one or two seconds.
He followed him into the tube station, down the escalators and onto a train. He described how he pointed out De Menezes to a team of armed officers who then entered the train.
But he told the jury "there was no identification from grey team (the surveillance team) at any time".
The inquest had heard earlier from the firearms officer who shot De Menezes that a surveillance officer positively identified the young man as failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.
The officer, using the codename C2 told the court: "I heard them say 'this is definitely our man'."
Ken also told the court that armed officers shouted a warning of "armed police" loud enough for De Menezes to have heard before he was shot.
He said that the firearms team were not inside the train carriage when they gave the warning but were coming through the open doors.
The court had earlier heard from commuters who were sharing the carriage with the shot man that they heard no warning from plain-clothes officers before the shots were fired.
Ralph Livock told the inquest that he had no idea whether the gunmen were police or terrorists when they boarded the Northern Line train on July 22 2005.
His girlfriend Rachel Wilson said: "First I thought they were messing around, then I thought they were terrorists and it was only when I left the carriage and somebody moved me gently out of the way that I figured they must be good guys. Apart from that I just didn't know who they were."
Labels: Evidence
This entry was posted
on Friday, 31 October 2008 at 15:35.
