Documents relating to the investigation into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by officers of the Metropolitan Police have been leaked and dispute the story of events we had previously been led to believe. It is claimed that Mr de Menezes:
was never properly identified because a police officer was relieving himself at the very moment he was leaving his home;
· was unaware he was being followed;
· was not wearing a heavy padded jacket or belt as reports at the time suggested;
· never ran from the police;
· and did not jump the ticket barrier.
I wrote earlier that there must have been a clear breakdown in communication for him to have been misidentified as a terrorist suspect and this seems to have been the case. In addition the shoot-to-kill policy may have been misinterpreted by the officers on the ground as this clearly was not a case of requiring a last resort measure if he had been restrained prior to being shot.
It is perhaps due to this apparent gross mishandling of the situation that the Metropolitan Police did nothing to correct the misinformation that was widely reported following this tragic incident. The Guardian reports that the Police are under pressure over Menezes leak.
