Officer who shot Jean Charles de Menezes after failed 21/7 terror attack to break 20-year silence in shocking new C4 doc
The shooting came in the wake of terror attacks in London where 52 people were killed
THE armed officer who killed Jean Charles de Menezes in the wake of London’s 7/7 bombings is to break his silence.
He will tell of the shooting dead of the innocent electrician in 2005 in the documentary Shoot to Kill: Terror on the Tube.
In the trailer, a voice-over says: “One of the officers who pulled the trigger will now tell his side of the story.”
Mr de Menezes, 27, was travelling to work when he was wrongly identified as a suicide bomber and shot at close range.
It happened at Stockwell Underground Station in South London on July 22.
The capital was in the grip of fear at the time following the July 7 suicide bombings by Islamic extremists — three on the Tube and one on a bus — in which 52 people were killed and injured almost 800.
Two weeks later, on July 21, another four devices exploded on the capital’s transport system but no-one was hurt.
The culprits went on the run hunted by terror experts and police who feared they may strike again at any time.
CCTV images of the four were released.
It was against this background that Mr de Menezes was wrongly identified and shot.
In the upcoming Channel 4 documentary trailer the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, says of his death: “It was a tragic accident — that’s what it was.”
The documentary, from Curious films, is likely to have greater poignancy after a Met firearms officer who shot dead London gangster Chris Kaba was cleared of murder last month but has had to go into hiding.
