The Hindu : Front Page : Victim of police killing was Brazilian

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 25, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

Victim of police killing was Brazilian

Hasan Suroor

MOURNING THE LOVED ONE: Maria Aparecida Menezes (left), aunt of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead by the London police, comforts the victim's mother Maria Otone de Menezes and father Matuzinho at their home near Gonzaga, Brazil, on Sunday.

LONDON: The innocent man, shot dead by police at an underground station in south London on Friday on suspicion of carrying explosives, has been identified as a 27-year-old unmarried electrician from Brazil, Jean Charles de Menezes, who had been living and working here for up to four years.

He was on his way to work when three undercover armed policemen started following him from the moment he left his home in Tulse Hill, south London, which had been under surveillance after Thursday's attempted bombings. At Stockwell tube station, they said they "challenged" him but when he did not respond they chased and killed him before he could get on to a waiting train — pumping at least five bullets into him.

Jean Charles de Menezes exercising in a recent photo. - PHOTOS: AP

Police would have known immediately that they had killed an innocent man but it took them more than 24 hours to publicly acknowledge it — and more to give out his name and nationality.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page