London jury faults police in shooting

A Criminal Court verdict Thursday that London’s Metropolitan Police endangered public safety in the 2005 shooting death of a Brazilian immigrant mistaken for a terrorist has set off a wave of calls for the force’s chief to resign.

The jury’s guilty verdict was aimed generally at the Metropolitan Police and did not single out officers. It also failed to satisfy critics of the police or the family of the victim, Jean Charles de Menezes, who said they awaited a full accounting of the incident.

More answers may come next week in a report from London’s Independent Police Complaints Commission.

During a monthlong trial at London’s Central Criminal Court, the jury heard evidence from several officers involved in the surveillance operation stemming from a series of attempted attacks on London’s subway system on July 21, 2005. Those attempts had followed the July 7 bombings of London’s transport system that killed 52 people.

As they testified, some officers broke down when they recalled their actions in what has been characterized as an uncoordinated operation fraught with errors and misjudgment.

The day after the failed attacks, anti-terrorism police and armed officers followed De Menezes, who was working as an electrician, mistaking him for Hussain Osman, leader of the failed July 21 bombings. As De Menezes entered the Stockwell subway station in South London, undercover officers believed he was a suicide bomber and jumped him inside a train. They held him down and shot him in the head seven times.

The Crown Prosecution Service, in filing 19 charges against London police for failure to ensure public safety, alleged a serious lack of planning, chaotic communication and a failure to correctly identify a suspect.

In his summary, Judge Richard Henriques said it was a “corporate failure, not an individual failure,” and imposed a $350,000 fine.

“This was very much an isolated breach brought about by quite extraordinary circumstances. One person died and many others were placed in potential danger,” he said.

In returning their verdict, jurors said their decision was one against the police as a body.

Speaking after the trial, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said he and his team would now “take time to consider whether and how any of our current operating practices need to be altered in the light of this conviction.” Blair said the death of De Menezes was “a tragedy.”

“He was an innocent man,” Blair said. “The Metropolitan Police Service has apologized to the family and friends of Mr. De Menezes many times in the past. Once more, I express my deep regrets for his death,” Blair said.

“It is important to remember that no police officer set out that day to shoot an innocent man,” he said.

His agency is unlikely to appeal the verdict but that has not been ruled out, Blair said.

Blair was pushed to fend off talk that he would resign.

“This case provides no evidence at all of systematic failure by the Metropolitan Police Service and I therefore intend to continue to lead the Met in its increasingly successful efforts to reduce crime,” he said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office voiced full confidence in Blair’s leadership. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the police and Ian Blair as their chief “have my full confidence and support.”

But opposition party leaders condemned the police and called on Blair to step down.

“On the back of such an overwhelming guilty verdict . . . Ian Blair’s position is simply untenable,” Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg said.

De Menezes’ friends and relatives accepted the verdict but said they still wanted answers and more accountability.

Erionaldo da Silva, speaking on behalf of De Menezes’ family, issued a statement Thursday saying, “I have spoken to Jean’s mother, Maria, and she said nothing can bring Jean back, but she’s at least pleased that the men and the women of the jury have found the Metropolitan Police guilty of the charge.

“We remain determined to ensure that the full truth about Jean’s death is made public and those responsible for his death are held accountable in a court of law,” Da Silva said.

The family’s lawyer, Harriet Wistrich, told the BBC the verdict was “a start.”

The jury didn’t hear evidence from several key witnesses, Wistrich said, including the officer who actually shot De Menezes and who, in mistaking an undercover officer who had pinned down the Brazilian as another suspected terrorist, almost shot him too.

Moreover, Wistrich said, there was no testimony from those in charge of the operation.

Interviewed on BBC television, Anna Dunwoodie, a passenger who witnessed the fatal shooting, said De Menezes did not attract her attention. “I didn’t notice him until he had a gun pressed to him.”

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janet.stobart@latimes.com