Revelations about the shooting of an innocent Brazillian in the wake of the London bombings focus attention on Britain's police

TIME Europe Magazine: Searching for Answers -- Aug. 29, 2005

August 29, 2005 / Vol. 166 No. 8

Searching for Answers

Revelations about the shooting of an innocent Brazillian in the wake of the London bombings focus attention on Britain's police

BY HELEN GIBSON / LONDON

The image of the unarmed British bobby took a hit last week after new details emerged about the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian killed by police when he was mistaken for a suspected suicide bomber the day after the failed July 21 terror attacks. In line with a shoot-to-kill policy put in place after Sept. 11, Menezes was shot eight times after boarding a London Underground train.

Eyewitnesses said Menezes wore a heavy jacket, and that he vaulted over the ticket barrier. These observations seemed to tally with the limited information provided by police, who said that Menezes' clothes and behavior at the station had added to their suspicions. But in documents leaked from an ongoing inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, other witnesses gave a different account. These documents and police photos, obtained by itv News, revealed that Menezes was in fact wearing a denim jacket and had walked through the ticket barrier.

A leaked statement from one of the surveillance officers described how Menezes had been restrained before he was shot. "We need to look very, very closely at the police shoot-to-kill policy," says former Deputy Mayor of London Jenny Jones, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority's complaints committee. "At the very least, people have a right to know exactly what it is." Menezes' family lashed out at police.

"For three weeks, we have had to listen to lie after lie about Jean and how he was killed," Menezes' cousin Alessandro Pereira said at a press conference in London, during which he also demanded that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair resign. "We never believed the English police," Menezes' 17-year-old cousin Leide told Time by phone from the small Brazilian town of Gonzaga. "We always knew he never ran. The British police say they are so efficient. But what kind of efficiency is this?" Amid claims from the family of a police cover-up — vigorously denied by Blair — Brazilian investigators prepared to fly to London for talks about the case with their British counterparts. Blair continues to defend the integrity of his force, and with the risk of more attacks still real, the British public want to believe him.