Jurors in London 2005 Police Shooting Case Sworn In
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LONDON — Jurors were sworn in yesterday at the coroner’s inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the innocent man whose killing in 2005 by London anti-terrorist police spurred calls for the city force’s chief to resign.
Assistant Deputy Coroner Michael Wright, a former High Court judge overseeing the three-month long inquest, told jurors in London at the first public inquiry to the July 22, 2005, shooting that the purpose of the hearing was to “search for the truth.”
Metropolitan Police tracked de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, into a London subway station and shot him two weeks after the terrorist bombing of three trains and a bus in the capital’s worst attack since World War II. Officers had been searching for terrorists who had botched another attack the day before and mistook de Menezes for one of the suspects.
“De Menezes was in no way associated with bombs, explosions, or any type of terrorism,” Mr. Wright said, at the start of the hearing. The inquest isn’t a prosecution and nobody is charged with a criminal offense, he said.
