News Brief – Sunday July 24, 2005
After clearly
lying about Friday’s shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, London’s Police Commissioner has gone onto to say that more could be killed.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has admitted further people could be shot as detectives hunt down the would-be suicide bombers who tried to bring further carnage to London last week.
His comments followed the fatal shooting of innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, who was killed by undercover police officers on Friday morning as he tried to board a Tube train at Stockwell, south London.
Sir Ian admitted there was a "shoot-to-kill policy" for tackling suicide bombers and it would not change, although the death of Mr de Menezes was a "tragedy".
"Somebody else could be shot. But everything is done to make it right," Sir Ian told Sunday with Adam Boulton on Sky News.
Sir Ian didn’t explain how such an obvious mistake was made. Nor did reveal what actually went wrong, other than to say that it was a “terrifying set of circumstances for individuals to make decisions.”
Sir Ian defended the actions of his officers, but failed to explain how an obvious innocent who had been under surveillance for some time, could be mistaken for a “suicide bomber”..
He said Mr de Menezes had emerged from a "not very large" block of flats which had been under surveillance before he was followed to Stockwell station.
Nonetheless, shoot-to-kill procedures for dealing with suicide bombers would remain in place, Sir Ian said. "They have to be that because there is no point in shooting at someone's chest because that is where the bomb is likely to be."
Although he did not specifically mention Israel, Sir Ian explained that much had been learned from other countries and that “The only way to deal with this is to shoot to the head."
Last updated 27/07/2005
Homepage