Police officer who shot man thought to be a terrorist speaks for first time

A Met police officer who shot an innocent man wrongly suspected of being a terrorist after the 7/7 London bombings has spoken for the first time, saying he believed “we were going to die” if he didn’t act.
Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, was killed a fortnight after suicide bombers targeted three Tube lines and a London bus on July 7 2005, killing 52 people.
Now the firearms officer, who has remained anonymous for nearly 20 years, defended the shooting for the first time as part of Channel 4’s Shoot To Kill: Terror On The Tube documentary.
“Reliving it in this detail is painful,” the officer only known as C12 said.
Mr de Menezes lived in an apartment block linked to one of the suspects involved in a failed attempt to target London’s transport network on 21 July.
The next day, police followed him onto a train at Stockwell Tube station in south London, where he was shot seven times by two officers.
Two days later on July 23, Scotland Yard confirmed Mr de Menezes was not connected to the July 21 attacks.
The officer said: “I want to make sure that people understand these decisions, although they’re taken quickly, they’re not taken lightly.
“Because of his actions, what he did, the information we received, it left me with no other conclusion than I had to act or we were going to die.”
C12 added that the way Mr De Menezes stood up while on the train “triggered” something in his head.
“He knew who we were. He still continued on his forward momentum as I had my weapon up, pointing at his head,” he recalled.
“I remember the surveillance officer then in full body contact with him, and apparently what he was trying to do was pin his hands so that he couldn’t detonate.
“I’m expecting an explosion at any moment, he’s gonna blow. We’re gonna die. But that’s the nub of it.
“If I don’t do something now, we are all going to die.”
Dame Cressida Dick, who was promoted to Metropolitan Police commissioner in 2017, led the operation in which Mr de Menezes died.
A jury cleared her of any blame in his death, but the Met Police was fined £175,000 and ordered to pay £385,000 in costs after being found guilty of endangering the public.
Shoot To Kill: Terror On The Tube will air on November 10 and 11 on Channel 4.
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