Posted on 07/23/2005 5:13:50 PM PDT by friedamfry
Man shot was not linked to London terror attacks 23/07/2005 - 17:45:46
The man shot dead by police in south London yesterday is not connected to attempted terror attacks on the capital, Scotland Yard said today.
“For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets,” said a spokesman.
The fatal shooting happened in Stockwell at 10am yesterday when armed plain clothes police officers shot a man as he tried to board a train at the underground station.
He had emerged from a nearby house that was under surveillance because of a suspected link to Thursday’s attempted bomb attacks on three Tube trains and a bus.
The man, whose name has not yet been released, was then followed by surveillance officers.
He is thought to have caught a bus to Stockwell Tube station where he was challenged by officers, who told him to stop.
The man, who is believed to be of South American appearance, then bolted down an escalator, according to witnesses.
He apparently tried to get on a train before he was, according to witnesses, shot five times in the head by an officer with an automatic pistol.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair had said yesterday that the shooting was “directly linked” to anti-terror operations.
However, in a statement, Scotland Yard said today: “We believe we now know the identity of the man shot at Stockwell Underground station by police on Friday, July 22, although he is still subject to formal identification.
“We are now satisfied that he was not connected with the incidents of Thursday, July 21, 2005.”
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20:12:55 - Police find 'suspicious package' linked to bombing attempt
He could have jumped the turnstyle and not had a ticket. He could have had an once of cocaine on him. He could have been an earlier victim of hooligans who mistook him for a Muslim extremist. He could have...
Well, I guess we'll never know now.
He'd lived in England for 5 years, his English was just fine.
Here's my police story. After work late one night, I had to pee bad. I slipped behind a 7/11 which was adjacent to an apartment building. As I was peeing I heard this lady moaning. It scared the hell ot of me and I went running off. As I jammed out of the alley two police officers were coming in. They pulled their weapons and said stop right now you mother f%^$er. They slammed me against the wall. I was scared sh*tless and you know what? So were the cops. It turns out the lady (of questionable character) got beat up by some dude and someone in the appartment building had called it in a few minutes earlier. I was just one unlucky guy at the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyway, it all got worked out (Thank god for the pee spot on the wall, plus I didn't look the part of thug).
Now, here's the moral of the story. When the cops say stop or I'll shoot. For christ sakes, stop!!!!
It is highly unlikely that the shooter was untrained. The SAS & Para's have an sop on cold calls. It was followed.
There has to be a cover story.
We may as well not fear that WMD. Fire drills that take us outside or readiness checks OUTSIDE etc. just don't replace the situation.
I for one will never forget the film of that Italian who grabbed his blindfold and came running, shouting at the terrorists holding him: "I'll show you how an Italian dies." I will love Italy dearly for the rest of my life for that.
Let's not call fury fear anymore. These cretans are counting on our soft underbellies giving way to servitude, but they've gotta sleep sometime.
There is something fishy in this whole story - maybe I'm missing something but is he Muslim, was he running, was he wearing a heavy coat or is all this just misinformation.
Just because this guy was from Brazil doesn't necessarily mean he wouldn't have links to terrorists (including Islamic radicals.) (Ref.:)
RIO DE JANEIRO (Agence France-Presse) - The high command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia has three bases or hide-outs in Brazil, the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo reported during the weekend, quoting Colombian intelligence sources.
The report said the largest of the bases is in the southern Brazilian state of Parana, in a region known as Guaira, on land owned by a naturalized Brazilian of Lebanese origin who has been in government custody for seven months.
Hopefully MI5 and MI6 are checking out this guy's background while Scotland Yard is getting "Monday morning quarterback'ed" on this shooting.
An electrician would be a good cover for a bomb maker. If they get any explosive residue off of this guy, then this may have been a righteous shooting.
Hopefully the bobbies had a little more than a hunch and a suspicious runner to back up their choice to take this guy out.
He was running from police for some reason. This just doesn't make sense. Why was he trying so hard to get away?
People run from police all the time. It might be because he didn't have a proper subway ticket, he could have had an some cocaine on him, he could of thought the excited people in civilian clothing running at him were football hooligans mistaking him for a Muslim...
I think the paper used "house" when it should have used apt. That's the impression I get from later reports.
Bet the gate crashings at the tube go down for a while.
"Hopefully MI5 and MI6 are checking out this guy's background while Scotland Yard is getting "Monday morning quarterback'ed" on this shooting."
Well, it's the Met Police who are the ones who have said that the shooting was a mistake and that the guy was innocent...
" The question remains, "why did he run""
The reports that I have seen have conflicting accounts of when warning shouts were made - was he confronted before jumping the ticket barrier or did they shout at him to stop after he had done that and while he was on the escalator?
If it's the latter, the obvious explanation is that he was running for his train. If that's the case, then he may not even have registered that the shouts behind him were aimed at him, or have assumed that they were from a ticket inspector regarding his jumping of the barrier.
At the moment we just don't have a clear timeline of what happened, who shouted and when, what did they shout and how far where they away when they did.
I regret he was shot, but I really don't see what else the police could have done under the circumstances. To be fair, even left wing groups are not jumping up and down about this as much as you might expect, as it is clear the police did follow the correct procedure.
Regards, Ivan
Adam Boulton is interviwing Ian Blair, Met Police commisioner on Sky News right now...
Thanks, mate.
Regards, Ivan
"However, police did not explain what went wrong or say whether Menezes had done anything illegal."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050724/ap_on_re_eu/britain_underground
Therein may lie the answer to why the guy was acting like he was guilty of something. The height of terror crack down might not be the best time for other criminals, petty or otherwise, to be doing business, or gadding about looking suspicious I'd guess.
"To be fair, even left wing groups are not jumping up and down about this as much as you might expect, as it is clear the police did follow the correct procedure."
Something about one's own vulnerabilities that puts things like this into a clearer perspective, even for folks who routinely "nuance" everything to death. They may have begun to realize that these terrorists are totally into equal opportunity and moral relativism when it comes to victims.
I thought about FARC, too. They are big on car-bombings and were supposedly trained by the IRA. In fact, a couple of years ago, one of the IRA's "best" bombmakers was nabbed in Brazil, where he had gone to train FARC members and members of Islamic radical groups in bombmaking techniques.
Being an electrician from Brazil certainly does not make this man seem less suspicious.
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