I saw suspect shot dead (or, "how to execute Muslim suicide bombers")

The Sun ^ | 7/23/05 | NICK PARKER,MIKE SULLIVAN, STEVE KENNEDY, CHARLES RAE and VIRGINIA WHEELER

[TrebleRebel]

I saw suspect shot dead

By NICK PARKER,MIKE SULLIVAN, STEVE KENNEDY, CHARLES RAE and VIRGINIA WHEELER

A SHAKEN commuter told last night how he watched armed undercover cops shoot dead a suicide bomb suspect by pumping five bullets into him.

Mark Whitby, 47, was sitting reading his paper when the Asian man leapt into his Tube carriage at Stockwell station — with the plain-clothes cops in pursuit.

As the man stumbled the cops closed in and — fearing he was about to detonate a bomb — immediately opened fire.

Mark said: “As the man leapt on the train I looked at his face. He looked just like a cornered rat ... like a cornered fox, absolutely petrified.

“Then he tripped. One of the police officers was holding a black automatic pistol in his left hand. They held it down to him and unloaded five shots into him — bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

“Five shots and he’s dead. It was no further than five yards from me. It was like a nightmare — a very distressing sight.”

Last night police sources told how undercover officers had followed the suspect to the station from an address in neighbouring Brixton, South London.

The house had been under surveillance overnight after its address was found on documents in one of the rucksacks used in Thursday’s failed bomb attempts.

At 9am yesterday a young Asian man walked out of the house wearing a heavily-padded jacket.

He was tailed from a distance and followed on to a bus.

The officers in pursuit were wearing concealed earpieces connecting them to Anti-Terrorist chiefs at New Scotland Yard.

When it became clear the man intended to get off the bus near the station the officers urgently requested armed assistance — fearing he had a bomb beneath his padded jacket and planned to detonate it on a train.

[UltraKonservativen]

You are right about dead man switches but still when I read that sentence...."This is because headshots cause muscles to go limp instantly, preventing a bomber from detonating a device"...I felt...aroused.

[snarks_when_bored]

All I can say, it´s NOT unusual to wear an overcoat on an average summer day in London.

I sit corrected on that. Still, since he came out of a house that was under surveillance and headed for a bus, it would've made sense to stop him from getting on the bus.

Of course, this morning it's being reported that his killing was 'a mistake'. But what were the cops to think when he refused to stop after being ordered to stop, ran away from them, jumped a turnstile and ran onto a train? Jeez, that was stupid.

[TrebleRebel]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1534753,00.html

Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission said: "We have raised concerns about the Met sending officers to learn from the Israelis about suicide bombers. They have a policy of assassinating people - why should our police learn these tactics and these values?"

"why should our police learn these tactics and these values?"

Because they want to assassinate scum Muslim suicide bombers. Does that answer your question?

[MizSterious]

Some would have them consult Miss Manners for etiquette tips before acting.

Everyone is lucky the man wasn't wired for an explosion, but if he had been, a well-aimed shot to the head was the best remedy.

[8mmMauser]

Note to self

Tap two to center mass, one to head. Tap five to head.

8mm

[Texas_Conservative2]

so how long do you think it will be before his family files a wrongfull death lawsuit against the police for a few billion dollars?

*sigh*

[CindyDawg]

I didn't read that they said it was a mistake but that he wasn't one of the previous bombers.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

“As the man leapt on the train I looked at his face. He looked just like a cornered rat ... like a cornered fox, absolutely petrified."

Who would not freeze and throw up there hands in this case?

It makes me wonder if he was martyred, that he led police to believe he was a bomber but had no bomb so that the public would be outraged at the racist killing of the innocent and further restricted in their reactions.

[CindyDawg]

Makes sense to me. They sign up to die. I don't know if they care how though.

[Michael81Dus]

I agree, stupid of him. However, it should be a warning to all of us that terrorism is no excuse that cops become wild animals. I cannot really judge about the situation, I wasn´t there, but we have to take care that we don´t abolish our freedom in order to protect it against terrorists.

[snarks_when_bored]

Catherine Herridge of Fox News read a breaking news release in which the word 'mistake' was used. Perhaps later releases will omit that word.

[CindyDawg]

Fox's word or the police?

[Luke]

Its WAR, you shoot to KILL in war...period.

O.K. ...just don't stand too close to the next guy wearing bulky clothing.

Frankly I'd rather have my freedom as per the Constitution of the United States than be assured of safety by Homeland Security and the Border Patrol.

[bobdsmith]

Maybe he'd just watched Enemy Of The State

[snarks_when_bored]

She appeared to be quoting from a London police statement.

[snarks_when_bored]

From what I've read so far, I can find no fault with what the police did. The man's overcoat could well have been concealing explosives; he refused repeated orders to stop; he ran from quite a large number of police officers who identified themselves as such to him; he ran towards an occupied train, as if seeking to get to it and explode himself.

In such circumstances, split-second decisions must be made. An instant's hesitation could've allowed the man to explode himself.

[Sacajaweau]

That's what I was hoping for and I'm surprised they put it out....Address found in documents in the rucksack. All that stuff should have been blown to bits.

[William Tell]

snarks_when_bored said: "Still, since he came out of a house that was under surveillance ..."

Recent articles claim that the suspect emerged from a "block of flats" that was under surveillance. That does not sound like he came from a specific address being watched. Another poster suggested that this guy may have been a suicide terrorist whose mission was to make the British appear to be anti-Muslim. He may have succeeded if that was his mission.

Another poster suggested that London weather is similar to San Francisco. The conditions in SF can go from sweltering to chilling in half an hour due to coastal fog. Wearing a jacket is prudent.

I spent a year and a half in the tropics in my youth and was also a smoker. I wore a jacket at all times for years after returning home. People raised in India would be quite accustomed to warm weather and intolerant of temperatures in the low seventies.

If the details regarding this suspect running away and jumping the turnstile don't hold up any better than the address, we're probably looking at a bad shoot. Who's to say that terrorists would not plant a false address just to lead to such behavior? Perhaps the address was of a person who refused to get involved in such matters and planting his address was payback.

[snarks_when_bored]

Several eyewitnesses said the man was running from the police. Under ordinary circumstances, and if that was all he had done, that probably wouldn't justify the use of deadly force by the police. But the circumstances weren't ordinary and that doesn't appear to be all that he did.

There's a certain level of intelligence and awareness required to continue living. Was he completely clueless as to what was going on around him? If so, he lost his life out of sheer stupidity. Nature doesn't owe any organism a living; either an organism uses its faculties to help it survive (uh, when the police order you to stop a day after several terrorist attacks, stop!) or else it gets dispatched into the wastebin of history.