Met under pressure over police shooting
The Metropolitan police commissioner is coming under increasing pressure over the shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes by his officers last month.
Lawyers acting for the 27-year-old have demanded a full public inquiry after leaked witness statements from the incident on July 22nd suggest wide discrepancies with the official version of his death.
The family has also called for those responsible for the shooting at Stockwell underground station to be imprisoned for life, and for the Met commissioner Sir Ian Blair to resign.
Yesterday it emerged that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is conducting an inquiry into the shooting, was only handed the case three days after the incident took place. It is usual for the IPCC to be at the scene within hours.
A statement from the Met revealed Sir Ian wrote to John Gieve, the permanent secretary at the Home Office, copying in Nick Hardwick of the IPCC, to clarify the role of the independent investigator in the event that Mr Menezes turned out to be a terrorist suspect.
“This was because it was crucial that the terrorist investigation took precedence over any IPCC investigation at that time,” the statement said.
“This letter lead to further conversations that day, where it was agreed that the MPS would hand over the shooting investigation to the IPCC with their officers taking over on the following Monday.
“This was an entirely transparent discussion as to mutual roles in the face of an unprecedented situation.”
Both the Met and the IPCC have refused to comment on the leaked documents about Mr Menezes’ death, but officials from the commission are meeting with the dead man’s family and lawyers later today.
The lawyers claim the IPCC documents leaked to ITV News reveal “virtually the entire body of information” coming from the police had been false. They have demanded that the “the entire truth” over Jean Charles’ death be made public “as a matter of urgency”.
Asad Rehman, from the Justice4Jean campaign, said if Sir Ian was found to have misled the De Menezes family, his position would be no longer tenable.
The family has also called for the suspension of the police’s apparent “shoot-to-kill” policy, while call backed by Jenny Jones, a Green party member of the London Assembly and member of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA).
Describing the policy as “highly risky”, Ms Jones said: “There must be an open, public debate at the MPA about the shoot to kill guidelines. This can’t be left to the police and the Home Office to stitch up between them.
“We have been fed mistaken facts and false information. The police now have to come clean, tell us what really happened and above all, publish the guidelines.”
