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Menezes firearms boss admits: We were not prepared
Rob Singh, Evening Standard14 Oct 2008
A SENIOR firearms officer involved in the operation that led to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes admitted today that he had been dealing with "unprecedented" circumstances.
Chief Inspector Vince Esposito said he had not prepared for the pursuit of failed suicide attackers.
Giving evidence for the first time at the 27-year-old's inquest, Mr Esposito described how he worked alongside the deputy assistant commissioner Cressida Dick as an adviser on the day Mr de Menezes was killed.
Police officers mistook Mr de Menezes for one of the failed suicide bombers who tried to detonate bombs on London's transport network on 21 July 2005. Mr de Menezes was shot the day afterwards at Stockwell Tube station.
The inquest heard how Mr Esposito was a senior figure involved in developing anti-terror firearm tactics after the September 11 attacks. When asked by Michael Mansfield QC, representing the de Menezes family, what went wrong at Stockwell, he said: "For me it actually gets taken back to July 7 when the bombings happened, then on to July 21, to the failed bombings... for me as tactical adviser boil down to one simple thing, and that is misidentification."
The inquest continues.
