Police Tube killing: Demand for public inquiry

Their supporters say that Scotland Yard chief Ian Blair must resign if he is found to have deliberately misled them over the killing at Stockwell Tube Station.

Their lawyers also say a “fatal delay” by police in triggering an independent investigation could have led to the loss of vital evidence.

Meanwhile former cabinet minister Frank Dobson piled the pressure on Blair, saying his position was “very difficult” as he was partly responsible for people being misled.

Tony Blair would have been unlikely to give the police such firm backing in the way he did if the truth had been known, Mr Dobson said.

Police “have allowed the false impression, the misleading impression, that this man was behaving suspiciously” which was “very disturbing”, he added.

Independent Police Complaints Commission documents obtained by ITV News have shown a catalogue of errors leading up to the shooting.

Further revelations from the leaked papers last night suggested that Mr de Menezes was identified as a target to armed police just seconds before he was killed.

An undercover surveillance officer shouted: “He’s here” and pointed at the innocent man before colleagues pumped seven bullets into his head.

The documents, which have reignited controversy over the shooting, contradict early accounts of events leading up to it.

Mr de Menezes, an electrician, was at first thought to have aroused suspicion by wearing a heavy padded coat, vaulting ticket barriers, and fleeing from police.

It now appears that he was wearing a light denim jacket and calmly walked into Stockwell Station, even picking up a free newspaper before sitting down on the Tube train, where he was shot.

One officer quoted in the investigation documents said he was able to pin back Mr de Menezes’ arms before the shooting started.

Another, who was taking part in a surveillance operation at the block of flats in south London where the Brazilian lived, was apparently unable to take video footage of him leaving because he was “relieving himself”.

The leaked information showed police were investigating a car parked at the Tulse Hill address believed to be connected to a suspected terrorist training camp in Cambria, in Wales.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission last night promised a “thorough and impartial” investigation into the events on July 22, and said it planned to update the family’s lawyers today.

Alex Alvez Pereira, a cousin of the victim, called for his killers to be “sent to jail for life” and described the shooting as “murder”.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it was “too soon” to be talking about possible charges over the death.

Asad Rehman, of the Justice4Jean campaign, said that if Ian Blair was found to have misled the de Menezes family, his position would be “no longer tenable”.

He said the commissioner must take responsibility for his force’s controversial shoot-to-kill policy.

“It is clear that the buck stops with him,” Mr Rehman said. “He has to bear responsibility for the failure of this policy and for the incidents of that day.”

Family lawyers Harriet Wistrich and Gareth Peirce said they no longer had any confidence in the official investigation into the shooting.

They also claimed police had breached their statutory duty by failing to invite the IPCC to start its investigation immediately after it happened.

This “fatal delay of several days” meant vital evidence could have been lost, they said.

Scotland Yard confirmed that Ian Blair had written to the Home Office on the morning of Mr de Menezes’ death.

This was “to clarify the role of IPCC if, as it then appeared”, the shooting involved a suicide bomber involved in the previous day’s attempted bombings.

“This was because it was crucial that the terrorist investigation took precedence over any IPCC investigation at that time,” the force said.