Officer describes de Menezes 'mass confusion'
Updated on 08 October 2007
A police officer has described the moment Jean Charles de Menezes was wrongly shot as a suicide bomber.
The surveillance officer, codenamed Ivor, told the Old Bailey that it had been a "distressing" and "shocking" incident for passengers who fled the Tube carriage at London's Stockwell station in July 2005.
He had followed Mr de Menezes on to a Number 2 bus heading towards Brixton Station. Later Ivor moved into action as Mr de Menezes stood up from his seat on the Northern line train with his arms at waist level and slightly in front of him.
Ivor said: "I grabbed Mr de Menezes wrapping both my arms around the torso, pinning his arms against his side, pushing him back to the seat with the right hand side of my head against the right hand side of his torso, pinning him to the seat.
"He appeared to stiffen up. He was not in natural sitting position but he was back in the seat where he had been sitting. After a few moments I felt his head turn towards me. I was aware of a CO19 officer kneeling on the seat to my left.
"I heard a gunshot very close to my left ear and was hit by a shockwave of a gun being discharged."
In the confusion Ivor was dragged to the floor by a firearms officer. The next thing he noticed was that a gun was pointed at him.
He said: "I was aware that the long-barrelled weapon was levelled at my chest and the barrel of a gun was at my head. Given this I held out my hands and shouted 'police'."
Ivor pointed out that he was dressed "virtually identically" to Mr de Menezes in jeans, a denim jacket and trainers. He also wore a black baseball cap and was carrying a rucksack.
The officer was then dragged out of the carriage to the rear wall of the platform. His arms were still in the air and he then he put on his chequered police cap.
He added: "I could hear several gunshots and shouting and screaming but nothing more specific. The scene was extremely violent, extremely noisy and obviously distressing.
"Members of the public were emptying the carriage obviously in distress. There was a lot of gunsmoke. It was obviously a shocking incident."
He told the jury he had acted "instinctively" against Mr de Menezes.
Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head after wrongly being identified as a terrorist.
The Brazilian electrician had been followed from his home in Scotia Road, south London, an address linked to the July 21 attempted bomber Hussain Osman.
© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
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