Cop who Shot Dead Jean Charles de Menezes Breaks Down in Witness Box

THE policeman who shot Jean Charles de Menezes broke down yesterday as he described how he shot the innocent Brazilian three times.

The officer, known only as Charlie 12, was speaking for the first time about the killing at an inquest into the electrician's death.

Nicholas Hilliard QC, counsel to the inquest, asked him: "When you fired those shots, you intended to kill him ?" The officer replied: "Yes." Mr Hilliard asked him: "Why did you fire three shots?"

Charlie 12 replied: "I had to be certain that life was extinct."

He told Southwark coroner's court in London: "If there had been an alternative, I would have taken it. But I didn't have one."

Charlie 12 also apologised to the De Menezes family and the hearing had to be halted to allow him to recover after he broke down in tears.

He told the court he led a team of SO 19 police marksmen on July 22, 2005.

They were called to Stockwell tube station in London, hetold coroner Sir Michael Wright QC, having been ordered to "state red".

Charlie 12 told how, armed with a 9 mm Glock pistol, he vaulted the barriers and pulled his handgun from a holster on his jeans.

He saw a man standing on a northbound train and recognised him as a surveillance officer, known to the court as "Ivor".

Charlie 12 said he walked along the platform scanning the train hiding his pistol against his right leg. He then spotted Ivor had his foot jammed against the double doors keeping them open in a classic surveillance technique.

Charlie 12 told the court: "The way he was looking at me, there was a sort of, for want of a better word, needy look in his eyes."

Ivor was leaning on the glass partition while De Menezes was sitting opposite.

Charlie 12 said: "He (Ivor) made a clear overt gesture with his right hand and he said, 'That's him'. Ivor's words reconfirmed my belief that De Menezes was a failed suicide bomber."

He said it was not the job of firearms officers to make their own identification but to "trust" surveillance teams to get it right, he added.

Charlie 12 said: "Things happened very quickly. De Menezes looked in my direction and stood up. He immediately came towards us. In my opinion he was closing us down.

"I shouted, 'armed police' and at the same time brought my handgun up ."

Asked by Mr Hilliard what his thoughts were when De Menezes kept coming towards him, Charlie 12 replied: "I've challenged, I've brought the weapon up into his facial area. I formed the opinion, 'He's going to detonate, he's going to kill us and I've got to act now'."

If De Menezes had not stood up or had stopped moving towards him when challenged, Charlie 12 said he would not have opened fire.