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| Menezes 'could have been stopped' | |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A firearms officer has said he could have stopped Jean Charles de Menezes entering Stockwell Tube station, where the Brazilian was shot dead. | |
| The officer, identified by the code name C12, told an inquest a series of mistakes led to Mr de Menezes' death. | |
| He admitted not reporting that he was close to Mr de Menezes - but said he had not heard incorrect radio reports that no armed officers were nearby. | |
| Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot on 22 July 2005 in mistake for a suicide bomber. | Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot on 22 July 2005 in mistake for a suicide bomber. |
| Police searching for failed bomber Hussain Osman had tracked Mr de Menezes from his home in Tulse Hill, south London, to the station. | Police searching for failed bomber Hussain Osman had tracked Mr de Menezes from his home in Tulse Hill, south London, to the station. |
| Radio traffic | Radio traffic |
| The officer told the inquest he was waiting outside the station and could have stopped Mr de Menezes before he went inside. | The officer told the inquest he was waiting outside the station and could have stopped Mr de Menezes before he went inside. |
| Michael Mansfield QC, for the Menezes family, asked him: "Did you hear any radio traffic from the firearms team saying, 'We can't do it, we're not there'?" | Michael Mansfield QC, for the Menezes family, asked him: "Did you hear any radio traffic from the firearms team saying, 'We can't do it, we're not there'?" |
| C12 replied: "No sir." | C12 replied: "No sir." |
| Mr Mansfield continued: "Because the truth was you were there and you could have done it, couldn't you?" | Mr Mansfield continued: "Because the truth was you were there and you could have done it, couldn't you?" |
| The officer said: "Yes sir." | The officer said: "Yes sir." |
| Mr Mansfield asked C12 what had gone wrong with the police operation on the day. | |
| 'Sadly wrong' | |
| The officer replied: "From the information I had received through the briefings, through the positive identification given to me by the surveillance officers, by Mr de Menezes's actions, both when we were getting on to the Tube [and] when I challenged him - everything I have thought sadly proved to be wrong." | |
| C12 admitted the onus was on him to tell his commanders that he could stop Mr de Menezes going into the Tube station. | |
| "The only explanation I am offering to you is that things happened so quickly as we came closer," he said. | |
| "Why I did not tell them where I was I just cannot tell you. I was trying to listen to the radio, I had a lot going on, and if that is an error, then you know, I apologise for it." | |
| 'Brutally honest' | |
| The officer denied making up parts of his statement to explain why he thought Mr de Menezes was a terrorist. | |
| "I have tried to be brutally honest about everything. I have got to justify what I have done. Justifying what I have done doesn't mean that I am going to break the law," he said. | |
| Mr Mansfield continued: "What I suggest is in your mind that once you knew he was identified, that was it - you are down the escalator, on the carriage and he is dead." | |
| C12 replied: "That could not be further from the truth. I did not even know where he was at that stage, let alone delivering a critical shot. I just did not have that in mind." | |
| The officer rejected Mr Mansfield's suggestion that, because of the nature of the training he had received, he did not assess the situation once he was in the train carriage where Mr de Menezes was shot. | |
| The inquest continues. | The inquest continues. |