Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes

Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes (7 January 1978 – 22 July 2005) was a Brazilian man killed by officers of the London Metropolitan Police Service at Stockwell station on the London Underground, after he was wrongly deemed to be one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts.

Born on 7 January 1978, the son of a bricklayer, Menezes grew up on a farm in Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

After discovering an early aptitude for electronics, he left the farm aged 14 to live with his uncle in São Paulo and further his education.

At 19 he received a professional diploma from Escola Estadual (State School) São Sebastião.

According to the Home Office, he arrived in Britain on 13 March 2002, on a six-month visitor's visa.

After its expiry, he applied to stay on as a student, and was granted permission to remain until 30 June 2003.

Almost all of the facts regarding the Menezes shooting were initially disputed by various parties.

Contradictory witness accounts, "off the record" statements from police, and media speculation added to the confusion.

These events took place two weeks after the London bombings of 7 July 2005, in which 52 people were killed.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) initiated two investigations.

Stockwell 1, the findings of which were initially kept secret, concluded that none of the officers would face disciplinary charges.

Stockwell 2 strongly criticised the police command structure and communications to the public.

An ITV report on 16 August 2005 claimed to contain leaked documents from an IPCC investigation.

On 22 July 2005, the Metropolitan Police were searching for four suspects in four attempted bombings carried out the previous day; three at Underground stations and one on a bus in Haggerston.

As the perpetrators had not died in the failed suicide bombing, a large police investigation and manhunt began immediately.

An address in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, was written on a gym membership card that was found inside one of the unexploded bags used by the bombers.

Menezes, an electrician, lived in one of the flats with two of his cousins, and had just received a call to fix a broken fire alarm in Kilburn.

At around 9:30a.m., officers carrying out surveillance saw Menezes emerge from the communal entrance of the block.

An officer on duty at Scotia Road, referred to as "Frank" in the Stockwell 1 report, compared Menezes to the CCTV photographs of the bombing suspects from the previous day, and felt he warranted further attention.

As the officer was allegedly urinating, he was unable to immediately film the suspect to transmit images to Gold Command, the Metropolitan Police operational headquarters for major incidents.

The inquest transcript confirms that "Frank" was a soldier on secondment to the undercover surveillance unit.

On the basis of Frank's suspicion, the Met's then Gold Commander Cressida Dick authorised officers to continue pursuit and surveillance, and ordered that the suspect be prevented from entering the Tube system.

Documents from the independent agency investigation of the shooting later concluded that mistakes in police surveillance procedure led to a failure to properly identify Menezes early on, leading to rushed assumptions and actions later at Stockwell tube station.

The officers followed Menezes to a bus-stop for the number 2 bus on Tulse Hill where several plainclothes police officers boarded.

Menezes briefly got off the bus at Brixton station.

Seeing a notice that the station was closed due to a security alert because of the previous day's attempted bombings, he made a telephone call and reboarded the bus towards Stockwell.

Unaware the station was closed, the surveillance officers said they believed that Menezes's behaviour suggested that he might have been one of the previous day's failed bomb suspects.

Officers claimed that Menezes' behaviour appeared "suspicious".

They later stated that they were satisfied that they had the correct man, noting that he "had Mongolian eyes".

At some point during this journey towards Stockwell station, 3.3 km away, the pursuing officers contacted Gold Command, and reported that Menezes potentially matched the description of two of the previous day's suspects, including Osman Hussain.

Based on this information, Gold Command authorised "code red" tactics, and ordered the surveillance officers to prevent Menezes from boarding a train.

According to a "senior police source at Scotland Yard", Police Commander Cressida Dick told the surveillance team that the man was to be "detained as soon as possible", before entering the station.

Gold Command then transferred control of the operation to Specialist Firearms Command (known as "CO19" or "SO19"), which dispatched firearms officers to Stockwell tube station.

Menezes entered the tube station at about 10:00a.m., stopping to pick up a free newspaper.

In July 2006, the Crown Prosecution Service said that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute any named individual police officers in a personal capacity, although a criminal prosecution of the Commissioner in his official capacity on behalf of his police force was brought under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, on the failure of the duty of care due to Menezes.

The Commissioner was found guilty and his office was fined.

On 12 December 2008 an inquest returned an open verdict.

Menezes' death led to protests in Brazil, and prompted apologies from British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

The Landless Workers' Movement demonstrated outside British diplomatic missions in Brasília and Rio de Janeiro.

The shooting also led to debate over shoot-to-kill policies adopted by the Metropolitan Police Service after the September 11 attacks.