Passengers said that a man – described as South Asian – ran on to a train. They said police chased him, he tripped, then they shot him.
“They pushed him on to the floor and unloaded five shots into him. He’s dead,” witness Mark Whitby told the BBC. “He looked like a cornered fox. He looked petrified,” said Whitby.
Whitby said it did not look like the man was carrying anything but said he was wearing a thick coat that looked padded. (Al Jazeera)
I found this more shocking than the bombs. I was kind of expecting terrorists to kill loads of us at some point. I don’t expect the police to execute anyone who looks vaguely suspicious and doesn’t do what they say. They really need to explain what it was that made someone running away from them a threat to their or other’s lives. At the moment we don’t know but the fact they haven’t said anything will suggest there wasn’t anything.
What will happen now is the police will close ranks and other firearms carrying police will threaten to hand in their guns unless they are given the leeway to make fatal mistakes…..
Chris – I think police statements are implying that they had other reasons for suspecting him other than the fact he ran away. My questions would be are these reasons sound and assuming they were – how did they let the situation run (apparently) so far out of control.
I would expect any police officer carrying firearms to know that they face the full legal consequences of their actions but I suspect that they will demand full legal immunity.
Judging by the Harry Stanley case, SO19 do seem to think that they should be entitled to shoot anyone they feel like.
I see he had an out-of-date visa, one of the million-and-one reasons for running that was *not* because he was a terrorist.
Most depressing is that I seem to be in a very small minority at work of thinking this unacceptable….sigh…..
This isn’t about the police policy, the policy doesn’t say pin people to the ground, then shoot them in the head. How they would feel if they or their friends or relatives had been killed while the Brazilian police had them pinned to the ground.
This made me so sad. I agree, it is totally unacceptable. I only heard about this through word of mouth (camping) and then, later, I heard someone trying to justify the police’s actions. I just had to walk away.