GAVCARoCOM wrote:Brezillian guy shot 8 times . in United kingdom who did it ??? police
Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian electrician mistakenly gunned down by anti-terrorist police at Stockwell tube station, was shot eight times, an inquest was told today.
Mr De Menezes, 27, died on Friday, the day after the failed suicide bombings on London's transport network. Details of how he died were confirmed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
An inquest, which was opened into his death earlier today at Southwark coroners court, heard that he was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder.
Eyewitnesses to the shooting had reported he had been shot five times after failing to stop when challenged by the plain-clothes officers. His family are considering legal action.
Speaking at a press conference in central London, the Independent Police Complaints Commission chairman, Nick Hardwick, confirmed that the commission had begun an investigation into the shooting.
"We enter this with open minds, as we search for the truth, and we have accepted the full cooperation of the Metropolitan police service, which they have pledged," he said.
Mr Hardwick confirmed that the officers involved in the shooting had already given an account of what happened, but said they could be interviewed by the IPCC team in the future.
"We don't start from the assumption that we are investigating a crime here. We are looking for the truth," he said.
Arrangements are being made so that the victim's family can be kept up to date with the progress of the investigation.
Tony Blair said he was "desperately sorry" about Mr De Menezes'death, but added that police officers, who are hunting for four would-be suicide bombers, were working in "very difficult circumstances".
The prime minister spoke about the shooting for the first time today in a Downing Street news conference alongside his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin.
"We are all desperately sorry for the death of an innocent person, and I understand entirely the feelings of the young man's family," Mr Blair said. "But we also have to understand the police are doing their job in very, very difficult circumstances.
"Had the circumstances been different and had this turned out to be a terrorist, and they had failed to take that action, they would have been criticised the other way."
Alex Pereira, a cousin of Mr Menezes, said the police "have to pay" for the mistake.
When asked whether the family was taking legal action, he told BBC Breakfast: "They have to pay for that in many ways because, if they do not, they are going to kill many people, they are going to kill thousands of people.
"They just kill the first person they see, that's what they did ... they killed my cousin, they could kill anyone."
Earlier, he said he wanted to show people that police "could have stopped" Mr Menezes before he caught a bus to Stockwell from Tulse Hill, also in south London.
"They killed him here because they had to show off," he said. "Police had plenty of time to stop him - if they were so afraid of a bomb, why did they let him get on the bus?"
At Scotland Yard, around 30 protesters, including friends of Mr Menezes, gathered and sang the Brazilian national anthem.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, expressed "deep regrets" over the killing, and said the force accepted "full responsibility".
However, he last night defended the "shoot-to-kill" policy for dealing with suspected suicide bombers, arguing that it was necessary to shoot suspects in the head if it was feared they might set off a bomb on their body.
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, will meet his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, in London tonight to apologise for the shooting.
Speaking prior to the meeting, Mr Amorim, who was in London on a visit planned before the death of Mr Menezes, who had been living in London for three years, said: "The Brazilian government and the public are shocked and perplexed that a peaceful and innocent person should have been killed."
Mr Menezes was followed by police who were part of a surveillance team that had been watching the Tulse Hill flats after the block's address was found in one of four backpacks involved in last week's failed attacks.
He was tailed when he boarded a bus, and police decided to intervene when he approached the tube station.
Officers said a contributory factor to Mr Menezes being shot was his chunky top, which they said could have concealed a bomb and was out of place on a warm day.
But the victim's friend Fausto Soares said: "We come from a hot country and this is a cold country. I wear my jacket 365 days a year. I'm wearing a jacket now, and after what's happened I don't feel safe."
He said he did not know why Mr Menezes had apparently tried to flee onto a train when challenged by undercover armed police at the entrance to Stockwell station.
"What we want to know is why they threw him on the floor and shot him in the head five times," he said.
The Home Office today refused to comment on reports that Mr Menezes had been in Britain on an out-of-date visa.
