Police: Man shot 'not connected' to bombings

[warrior1]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/23/london.tube/index.html

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police say the man they shot dead at a London Underground station "was not connected" with this week's attempted bombings on the city's transit system.

"For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets," the police statement said Saturday.

During a news conference following Friday's shooting, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said "this shooting is directly linked to the ongoing and expanding anti-terrorist operation."

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Wasn't he wired or something?

[RetroLounge]

1. Oops, So sorry we shot you 5 times.

Please see the cashier for your refund...

RL

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

15. You said it before I could.

[H2O Man]

24. "An ounce of prevention...."

I think he did have brown skin, though. And the Bush Doctrine says we can't sit back while the threat gathers, does it not?

Can you imagine anything that will make the British and US more hated than this type of thing?

[ConfuZed]

2. Reminds me of the LAPD SIS

do they still exist?

[derby378]

3. And so it begins

Al-Qaeda members worldwide are probably pissing themselves with laughter.

[Lautremont]

4. This seems like solid police work to me.

If they keep shooting people, eventually they'll get to someone connected with the bombing.

[gator_in_Ontario]

5. Anybody

making the connection between the bombings and the "patriot act"?

[CanuckAmok]

6. "wired" could mean his ipod earbud cable was hanging out of a pocket.

Damn, London used to be the only major city where you could pretty much guarantee not being shot by police.

[southernleftylady]

7. a republicans responce to this

"Maybe people will learn that you obey commands when police are pursuing you and yelling at you to "Stop". Oh, and they won't wear winter coats in the middle on Summer, especially when people are in fear of people carrying bombs on trains."

[Mairead]

28. That sounds like the new rule I formulated for South Asians, to wit:

Wear traslucent clothing, no coat regardless of weather, do not go near tube stations, walk slowly to your destination with your hands in the air, and be prepared to fall--immediately but without sudden movements--to the ground with your hands behind your head whenever anyone yells.

[Must_B_Free]

8. he was "suspicious" though

and that's good enough for summary execution.

[Jane Austin]

9. Last night on Olbermann, he spent

a whole segment on this and how the dead man was wearing a bomb strapped around his waist.

He apparently didn't stop when ordered to by the police, which is not smart when a city is on high alert and looking for people acting suspicious near subways.

[theHandpuppet]

13. He was NOT carrying a bomb

The man was being tailed by plain clothes police because he emerged from a block of flats under surveillance -- police not in uniform, BTW. We have no idea whether or not this man even spoke English. But we know what happens to brown people even suspected of terrorism -- its called Gitmo, where you don't have to have charges brought against you, you have no access to a lawyer and you can be kenneled like a dog for infinity.

If I were a brown Muslim in London and a bunch of white guys with guns started chasing me, I might panic, too. Not stopping when ordered is no reason to be executed.

[Benbow]

26. He might have been a decoy

but it is still stupid not to stop when armed police tell you to stop. I am sorry that he is dead but, in light of recent events in London, he must have knowingly taken the risk. If he had run down a side-street, instead of into the Underground (vaulting the security barriers), the police would probably have shot at some part of his body other than his head. He may have thought that he could outrun the police and have a laugh about it with his friends later that evening. He has suffered the direct consequences of his decision not to stop.

He was not executed. The police had to make a decision based on the man's behaviour and the way he was dressed (coat in midsummer, full enough to conceal a bomb), and make it quickly. Would you rather that they had waited for the bomb to explode - the bomb, that is, that they could not know that he did not have?

[lockdown]

33. Not without evidence or obvious intent, no.

I know the police face extremely difficult decisions, easy for me to say, but killing people based on suspicion alone can't be sanctioned. He wasn't having a laugh, eyewitnesses described him as terrified. He was mad to run away given the circumstances, but they were plain clothes, who knows what was going through his head.

He was executed, shooting even suspected suicide bombers dead has been officially approved.

[LisaL]

17. He didn't have any bombs.

[gulfcoastliberal]

10. Wasn't the suspect already on the ground with a police officer

holding him down? I thought I heard something along those lines although I could be mistaken. It sounded like he tripped, the cops caught up to him, and shot him execution-style 5 times through the head. I sincerely hope that was not the case. Also, was the victim the "suspect" in the CCTV pic that was wearing the "New York" sweatshirt? That hardly looked like a "coat".

[mrfrapp]

14. It is the case

"Wasn't the suspect already on the ground with a police officer holding him down? I thought I heard something along those lines although I could be mistaken. It sounded like he tripped, the cops caught up to him, and shot him execution-style 5 times through the head. I sincerely hope that was not the case."

It is the case unfortunately. The British newspapers today were making sure their readers knew what a great victory in the "fight against terrorism" this was and were unusually detailed in the description of events.

[LisaL]

18. If they shot him in the head while holding him to the ground,

then they should be charged with his murder.

[gulfcoastliberal]

20. How horrible!

I wonder whether the police office was in fact an MI5 agent. In any case, this execution coupled with that dumbass statement by Tancredo saying we should bomb Mecca has set us back at least 1000 years with the Muslim population of the world. Talk about handing over some royal jewels of propaganda. I really think we're in a modern-day dark age.

[bennywhale]

21. They are part of a specialist anti-terrorismunit called Katos (or somethin

similar) and have been aided in their training by the Israeli security services.

Hmmm

[Liberal In Texas]

23. Look, the guy was running from the coppers, witnesses said...

I saw these police officers in uniform and out of uniform shouting 'get down, get down', and I saw this guy who appeared to have a bomb belt and wires coming out...

You don't shoot a suspected bomber where you think the bomb might be (on his torso), you shoot him in the head in case he has a triggering device hoping that he won't be able to trigger it if he's dead.

I think the British police were quite brave in wrestling the guy down risking their own lives if a bomb had gone off.

Yes, he was quite stupid not to stop, even if he didn't speak English he should have stopped when he saw officers chasing him. If he lived in London, he HAD to know everybody was on edge following the TWO recent bombings on the tube.

It was an unfortunate series of events, but the suspect is just as responsible for his own death, if not more, than the police.

[Must_B_Free]

25. Interesting how that detail has changed already

Witnesses told of plain-clothes police pursuing a suspect on to a subway train carriage. He slipped as he ran and then was repeatedly shot at point-blank range as he lay on the floor.

"I saw them unload five shots into him -- bang, bang, bang, bang, bang," passenger Mark Whitby, 47, said. "Five shots and he's dead. It was no more than five yards (metres) from me."

[gulfcoastliberal]

32. But if they're saying he's not connected to the bombings...

He wasn't wearing a bomb belt. He did run - but was it uniformed or plainclothes officers? And as triggering devices go - oftentimes they have a pressure trigger so if they're killed and they release the grip, the bomb detonates. I'm staying neutral on this but it seems to me like the cops killed an innocent man who was only guilty of running away.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. hmmm

With two recent bombings, is it any surprise that something like this happened? The police/other agents are on-edge.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. Well.... he's connected now... idn't he.... more or less

permanently.

[wisteria]

16. Panic and mayhem increase and people start doing crazy things!

Bush's War on Terror have brought us to this point. DAMN HIM!

[Carni]

19. I could have sworn it was reported he was Asian

I remember thinking when the shooting first occurred that I hoped they hadn't shot some poor soul on vaca that didn't speak English.
I tend to think now that they did!

[Liberal In Texas]

30. Asian in Europe has a little different meaning than in the US.

Asian can mean people from India or Pakistan. This usage is generally not made in general conversation in the US. (As far as I understand it.)

[Carni]

34. Oh geez I didn't know that

Thanks for the correction!

[LibertarianVoice]

22. I thought that the London Police didn't carry guns?

But what we do know is that they had tasked military snipers to trail certain individuals who were suspected of having terrorist connections.
This was probably one of those guys.

So if you have a guy being trailed on terrorism suspicions, who enters a subway station, while wearing a heavy overcoat in the middle of summer, then runs from the police after shouting at him to stop... Well, it's not hard to imagine why it turned out the way it did.

So why did they shoot him multiple times while he was on the ground? The only logical answer is that they must have believed he was strapped with a suicide bomb, and if he was resisting arrest then they probably feared he would be able to trigger the bomb before they could properly subdue him.

It's very unfortunate if he was indeed innocent, but given the circumstances involved it's hard to blame the officers/snipers who were involved.

[Benbow]

27. Some UK police carry guns, but not on normal street patrol

[Karenina]

29. White people executing even ever-so-slightly tanned people

MUST ALWAYS be give the benefit of the doubt. Collateral damage and all that...

[ConfuZed]

36. Hear Hear! White people NEVER make mistakes!

[digno dave]

31. otoh, try to imagine the hysteria over there right now...especially

considering that 4 bombs that were supposed to go off didn't just hours before...if i am not mistaken. They probably shot him in the head because if he were wearing a bomb then shooting him in the body may have DETONATED it. Sounds obvious to me.
And does itjust so happen to be a coincidence that the 8 bombers involved in the attacks happened to be BROWN. Logic tells us that the next bomber might also be BROWN. This is coming from a 1/2 BROWN person, myself.
I mean the guy was running away from the cops wearing a suspiciously large coat. Might be a reason to be concerned if you ask me.
Sure, it's a terrible mistake, but lets try to put it in context of what is going on over there.

[warrior1]

35. lawsuits?

this is horrible.