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Use the links below to find out more about the campaign: > who we are |
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What happened on the 22nd July 2005 At approximately 9.20am on the 22nd July 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes left his flat in Tulse Hill and began his commute to work. It was a normal day of work for him, Jean was an electrician and that day, him and his friend Gesio had a job in North West London. It was a warm sunny summer’s day in London and Jean left home wearing his favourite type of relaxed clothes; some lightweight jeans, a t-shirt and a denim jacket. He did not carry a bag with him. He walked from his flat to the bus top nearby and caught a bus towards Brixton. When he arrived in Brixton however, he realised that the Victoria line was not working on that day so he called his friend Gesio and explained that he was running late and would instead travel to Stockwell and get the Northern line from there. Jean then proceeded to get on a bus from Brixton to Stockwell. He disembarked from the bus opposite Stockwell tube and waited at the traffic lights to cross the road. With the lights on green, he crossed over and entered Stockwell metro station. He paused to pick up a copy of the free newspaper, the metro, from a stand and walked through to the ticket barriers where he used his electronic Oyster ticket card to walk through the barriers. He then proceeded to take the escalator down towards the platform of the Northern line. Having walked off the escalators, Jean sees and hears a tube arrive
at the platform. Jean jogged onto the platform and entered the tube carriage.
He saw an empty seat, sat down and takes out his paper. The metropolitan police immediately began briefing the press with ‘off the record’ statements saying that Jean was a terrorist, that he was acting suspiciously, that he was wearing a bulky coat and that he was challenged but refused to co-operate. All of these statements have turned out to be false. Normally when there has been a killing at the hands of the police an immediate investigation is began by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) however, one hour after Jean was killed, the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Iain Blair wrote a letter to the Home Office asking for the immediate suspension of any investigation by the IPCC. He ordered his officers to close Stockwell tube to any investigations. As a result it was 6 days before the IPCC could begin their investigations. The family campaign believe this to be 6 days too late as during this time vital evidence could have been tampered with or destroyed. 5 hours after Jean was killed Sir Iain Blair appeared on national television
stating that the ‘incident’ at Stockwell tube was related
to the anti-terrorism operations and that Jean was challenged. He claims
he was not told until the next day that Jean had been an innocent man
but the family do not believe this can be true. How can it be that an
innocent man is killed in the most violent way and the head of the police
force is not told about it until the next day?
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