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Family of shot Brazilian visit London death scene

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 10:20 CDT

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - The family of a Brazilian man mistakenly shot dead by British police following attacks on the London transport system visited the scene of his death on Wednesday and demanded justice for their slain son.

Police shot Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, seven times in the head on July 22 as he boarded an underground train at Stockwell station in south London. They were hunting men behind a botched attack the previous day and believed the electrician had a bomb.

"Only Jesus knows our pain and suffering," said a tearful Maria Otone da Menezes, the dead man's mother. "We are here for justice."

De Menezes's parents and brother were taken by friends to Stockwell station to see where he died. They stopped briefly at an impromptu memorial of messages of sympathy near the entrance to the station before being taken down to the platform.

The shooting happened the day after four bombers failed in a bid to blow up three underground trains and a bus, and two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people in an identical plot.

The family demanded that the officers responsible for the killing should be arrested and prosecuted and said London police chief Ian Blair should also face punishment.

"We want to see those responsible caught and judged," the dead man's brother Giovani told a news conference.

Police have admitted making a mistake and apologized. Early details of a supposedly secret independent inquiry into the killing have revealed a series of communications blunders between police teams with shoot-to-kill authority.

Blair has asked to meet the family and apologize in person, but they refused.

The incident, and the way it was handled, deeply embarrassed Blair and his police force, which had initially been praised for its investigations into the attacks -- the biggest manhunt in British history.

Initial reports from police and witnesses said de Menezes had been wearing a bulky jacket, had vaulted a ticket barrier and run when challenged by officers.

But leaked details of evidence submitted to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) suggested all those details were incorrect, provoking an angry response from de Menezes's family who accused the police of lying.

Blair admitted the aftermath of the shooting had been mishandled but denied they had tried to mislead the family.

Brazil sent investigators to meet British detectives and the IPCC after which the ambassador to London said he had seen no evidence there had been a cover-up. The IPCC investigation is expected to conclude around the end of the year.

Source: REUTERS

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