BRITAIN:A senior anti-terrorist officer yesterday told a jury at the Old Bailey criminal court in London that commanders twice changed their minds about what to do in the moments before Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police marksmen.
The court heard that as the Brazilian electrician (27) made his way to work in south London on July 22nd, 2005 - the day after a failed attack by Islamist bombers on the capital's transport network - commanders at New Scotland Yard decided that surveillance officers should detain him before he reached Stockwell tube station, as a specialist firearms team had not arrived.
But almost immediately the control room was told that the elite armed squad were in position, and Cdr Cressida Dick ordered them to detain Mr de Menezes, who detectives believed was one of the previous day's would-be suicide bombers.
Det Supt Jon Boutcher told the court that he expected the arrest to take place before Mr de Menezes went underground at the station. However, the next message to reach the control room was that the suspect was on the escalator to the station platform. The control room then lost radio contact with the officers as they followed him underground.
Moments after the Brazilian took his seat on the tube, armed police officers boarded the train and shot him seven times in the head in front of commuters.
The Metropolitan Police is on trial over alleged health and safety failures leading up to Mr de Menezes's death. It denies the charges.
The court has heard that surveillance officers followed Mr de Menezes from his flat in south London in the belief that he was one of the unsuccessful bombers. When he arrived at Stockwell, he was being tailed by a Special Branch (SO12) surveillance team.
Det Supt Boutcher said he told Cdr Dick that she should instruct the SO12 team to detain Mr de Menezes, as the specialist firearms officers were not there.
"The SO12 officers are not trained for armed intervention. They carry firearms merely for self-protection, but in my judgment this was potentially Hussain Osman [ one of the previous day's bomb plotters] and a reasonable and balanced decision would be to stop the subject with the surveillance team before he was able to get into the underground."
He told the court that Cdr Dick ordered that the SO12 team should stop Mr de Menezes, but "almost immediately" the operations room learned from Trojan 80 - the senior firearms tactical adviser - "that the SO19 [ firearms] team were now in position to arrest the subject".
Det Supt Boutcher confirmed that the police's Kratos "shoot-to-kill" command was never given to officers following Mr de Menezes.
He added that the reason for the delay in firearms officers getting to the scene was because of problems with the identification of Mr de Menezes. "They were ideally located to join the surveillance team to conduct an intervention. Simply because of the difficulty regarding the surveillance team confirming the suspect was Hussain Osman, there was that slight delay."
Clare Montgomery, prosecuting, asked if a busy tube was the best place to challenge Mr de Menezes. He replied: "It was the first available opportunity. It is not ideal, but in London there are very few places for an ideal intervention."