Police Concede Slain Suspect Not a Bomber
LONDON — Delivering another shock to a city under siege, Scotland Yard acknowledged Saturday that a man fatally shot at close range by a police officer on an Underground train a day earlier was innocent of involvement in the attempted bombings of the transit system last week.
As the investigation continued, police were questioning two men who were arrested Friday at low-income housing projects on suspicion of terrorism. Forensic investigators also carried out meticulous sweeps of the two apartments in the Stockwell neighborhood where the men were arrested, raising speculation that some bombers might be in custody.
But police did not reveal whether the men were among the four suspects whose faces have been widely displayed, thanks to closed-circuit television images taken Thursday, when four bombs failed to fully detonate. The bombing attempts apparently were intended to repeat the attacks that killed 52 commuters July 7.
Scotland Yard's acknowledgment that the police shooting was a tragedy further darkened the mood of already tense and fearful Londoners. In the incident Friday morning, up to 20 well-armed plainclothes officers chased the man into the Stockwell Station and onto a subway train, where, after a brief struggle, an officer shot him five times in front of horrified passengers.
The slain man was identified as Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, a Brazilian electrician who lived in a predominantly black working-class area of South London that had become a focus of the manhunt after the failed attacks.
In a statement Saturday, police repeated the explanation that investigators had followed Menezes because he emerged from a residence that was under surveillance in the investigation of Thursday's incidents.
The residence was in the Tulse Hill neighborhood, which is at least a mile from the Stockwell Station.
Menezes' clothing -- witnesses said he wore a padded coat and cap despite the mild weather -- and behavior added to suspicions, the statement said. But police did not explain why Menezes disobeyed commands to stop and led officers on a chase into the station, hurdling a barrier to reach the train, according to witness accounts. Menezes was reportedly a legal immigrant.
"We are now satisfied that he was not connected with the events of Thursday, 21st July," the terse statement said. "The circumstances that led to the man's death are being investigated."
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- British Police Hold Bomb-Plot Suspect Jul 28, 2005
- The Second Plot: Copycats or Co-Conspirators? Jul 31, 2005
