Jean Charles de Menezes

Background to the shooting

Police were searching for four suspects in four attempted bombings carried out the previous day; three at Underground stations and one on a bus in Bethnal Green. A fifth unexploded device was later discovered in some bushes just north of White City and Shepherd's Bush. As the perpetrators had not died in the failed suicide bombing, a large police investigation began immediately, with the aim of tracking them down.

Related Topics:
Police - Underground - Bethnal Green - White City - Shepherd's Bush - Suicide bombing

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A written address reportedly had been identified from materials found inside the unexploded bags used by the bombers, located within a three-storey block of nine flats in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill.

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At around 9:30 a.m., surveillance officers observing the address saw a man, Menezes, emerge from the communal entrance of the block. The officers were watching three men who they claimed were Somali or Ethiopian in appearance. Menezes, an electrician, lived in one of the flats with two cousins, and had just received a call to fix a broken fire alarm in Kilburn.

Related Topics:
Somali - Ethiopia - Fire alarm - Kilburn

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An officer on duty at Scotia Road compared Menezes to the CCTV photographs of the bombing suspects from the previous day, and felt "it would be worth someone else having a look", but "was in the process of relieving self", and was thus unable to immediately turn on a video camera to transmit images to Gold Command, the Metropolitan Police operational headquarters for major incidents. Police thought they had positively identified a suicide bomber. On the basis of this officer's suspicion, Gold Command authorised officers to continue pursuit and surveillance.

Related Topics:
CCTV - Gold Command

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Documents from the independent agency investigation of the shooting later claimed that mistakes in police surveillance procedure led to a failure properly to identify Menezes early on, leading to rushed assumptions and actions later at Stockwell Tube station. {{ref|Guardian_Leak}}

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