[NYTr] UK: Police chief singled out over De Menezes shooting

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Simon McGuinness

The Independent - Aug 1, 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2823136.ece

Police chief singled out over De Menezes shooting 

By James Macintyre 

Two years after police shot dead the innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de
Menezes, it finally appeared that some criticism would be levelled at
the authorities last night, after the apparent leak of an official
report into the incident. 

It was reported that the Independent Police Complaints Commission would
today single out Andy Hayman, the head of counter-terrorism and
intelligence, for being deliberately misleading about events surrounding
the shooting, which took place after the July 7 suicide bombings in
London and a failed attempt two weeks later.

The Guardian said Sir Ian Blair will escape serious censure from the
investigation - "Stockwell2" - because he was not told about the
incident until the morning after it happened. In that time Mr Hayman had
overseen a process in which police maintained for hours they had shot a
"terrorist".

Mr Hayman is apparently accused of not passing on to Mr Blair doubts
that were emerging about whether the victim was a genuine terrorist
target. It was only 24 hours after the shooting that police admitted De
Menezes was innocent.

The Stockwell shooting could yet turn into one of the great public
scandals of the decade. Initially, police - who blacked out elements of
the CCTV footage - claimed that de Menezes was in a bulky coat and
sprinted over the underground barrier. These claims turned out to be
false.

One officer was urinating by De Menezes's block of flats while he
emerged, to be followed by officers on to a bus, the Tube and down into
Stockwell station, where he was shot seven times in the head at point
blank range.