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Police about to question Menezes minutes before death
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent30 Sep 2008
Surveillance officers following Jean Charles de Menezes decided he was not a terror suspect then changed their minds minutes before he entered a Tube station, the inquest into his death heard today.
At one point an unarmed intelligence officer with the Counter Terrorism Command was about to stop Mr de Menezes on a bus to quiz him for information - but was called off when the surveillance team decided he was a suspect after all.
The undercover teams at first thought the Brazilian electrician could be ontherun terrorist Hussain Osman after he left a block of flats in Tulse Hill linked to the failed suicide bomber.
But later they ruled he was not Osman and decided to stop and quiz him, a senior officer based at Scotland Yard on that day told the inquest at Southwark coroner's court.
Then, just before he arrived at Stockwell Tube station, word came through to commanders that the surveillance team did believe he was Osman, Detective Chief Inspector Angela Scott said.
Mr de Menezes, 27, was allowed to board a train before being shot in the head at point-blank range by two specialist firearms officers.
DCI Scott was appointed deputy to Detective Superintendent Jon Boutcher, the senior officer in the manhunt for those behind the 21 July 2005 failed attacks on London.
The next day she was in the operations room as the events that led to Mr de Menezes's death unfolded.
DCI Scott recalled the "energetic" atmosphere as the Brazilian left the flats in Scotia Road at 9.34am on 22 July.
She described the moment the control room heard that the identity had been changed for a second time. "Mr Boutcher at that point ... said, 'is it possible for the surveillance team to give us a percentage of how sure they are?'
"The response to that was, 'They're saying that it's him'."
DCI Scott recalled that Commander Cressida Dick, responsible for the operation, gave orders to "detain the subject prior to him entering the Tube".
The case continues.
