Guardian writers trace life and last minutes of Jean Charles de Menezes

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,12462,1535566,00.html

Short walk and the No2 bus - a very ordinary journey to death

Guardian writers trace the life and last minutes of Jean Charles de Menezes

Oliver Burkeman, Alex Bellos, Tom Phillips in Gonzaga, Angelique Chrisafis and Tania Branigan

Monday July 25, 2005
The Guardian


No journey by London bus or tube is quite as mundane these days as it once was and yet, by all accounts, Jean Charles de Menezes saw his own intended journey, last Friday morning, as nothing more than another day at work.

The 27-year-old Brazilian-born electrician had been due in Kilburn, to help fit a fire alarm. The only impact the previous day's attempted bombings seemed to be having on him was the one they were having on other Londoners: they were making him late.

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"I think that the police are inventing this thing about the thick jacket," said Mr Avila, whose number police found in Mr Menezes's mobile phone.

Mr Pereira denied his cousin would have jumped over the barrier. "Running, maybe. But not running from the police. Everyone runs for the underground. But he wouldn't jump. Why would he jump?"

He was not carrying his toolbag, both men said, because he had left it with Mr Avila in Kilburn the evening before.

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