London police shot wrong man
2005-07-23 22:05
London - Police said Saturday that a man shot and killed on a subway car had nothing to do with an investigation into a series of bombing attacks Thursday on London's transit system.
The shooting Friday took place at a subway station in the southern London neighborhood of Stockwell.
Scotland Yard said in a statement that "the man was unconnected to the incidents of Thursday 21 July."
It added that the man, who has not yet been identified, was "probably unconnected" to the first bombings on July 7.
According to the BBC, the man was a Brazilian national, citing unnamed sources.
A spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, Azzam Tamimi, said that "people will be afraid to walk the streets now, to take the tube.
"I feared that we'd arrive at this conclusion," he told the British Broadcasting Corp. "To give license to people to shoot someone dead like that on the basis of suspicion is very frightening."
"The problem in this particular incident is that the person seems to be colored, seems to be Asian. Now he can be of any religion, from any roots or region. this will cause a great anxiety and concern," Tamimi said.
The man, described as being a South Asian, had emerged from a nearby house that was under surveillance because of a suspected link to Thursday's attempted attacks on three subway trains and a public bus. According to police, he was followed by officers.
At the station, he was challenged by police and asked to stop and witnesses said he ran into a subway car where officers shot him about five times at point blank range
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair had said Friday that the shooting was "directly linked" to anti-terror operations.
However, in an announcement, Scotland Yard said that "we believe we now know the identity of the man shot at Stockwell Underground station by police on Friday, July 22, although he is still subject to formal identification. We are now satisfied that he was not connected with the incidents of Thursday, July 21, 2005."
It added that "the man emerged from a block of flats in the Stockwell area that were under police surveillance as part of the investigation into the incidents on Thursday, July 21.
"He was then followed by surveillance officers to the underground station. His clothing and behavior added to their suspicions.
"The circumstances that led to the man's death are being investigated by officers from the Metropolitan Police Directorate of Professional Standards..."
One witness to the killing, Mark Whitby, said that as that he saw the man as he entered the subway car.
"The man got on the train I looked at his face. He looked from left to right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, like a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified. He sort of tripped but they were hotly pursuing him and couldn't have been more than two or three feet behind him at this time. They unloaded five shots into him. I saw it. He's dead, five shots, he's dead," Whitby said.
AP
- AP