Brazilians Protest London Shooting

Hundreds of relatives, friends and supporters of a Brazilian shot to death in London after being mistaken for a terrorist marched along the cobblestone streets of his hometown Monday, demanding the arrest of the British officer who fired the shots.

Some of the protesters held banners denouncing British police as terrorists. Other placards were adorned with snapshots of Jean Charles de Menezes, whom police gunned down on a London subway train, and urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to send his body home for burial.

The marchers said Blair’s apology for the shooting did not go far enough.

“Apologies don’t help, we want justice,” they chanted, stopping briefly to offer a prayer for Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician who had left to work in Britain so he could return to Brazil with enough savings to start a cattle ranch.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters at a joint news conference with his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, that Britain would deal “sympathetically and quickly” with a claim for compensation from Menezes’ family.

Straw also said police had promised to expedite the release of Menezes’ body to his family.