Jury: London Cops Guilty In Tube Shooting

Brazilian Electrician Mistaken For Bomber; Jury Finds Police Operation Endangered Public

(AP)  A jury on Thursday found London's police force guilty of endangering public safety during a high-stakes anti-terrorist operation that led to the shooting death of a Brazilian man mistaken for a suicide bomber.

The force was fined 175,000 pounds ($362,000) and also assessed costs of 385,000 pounds ($798,000).

London's Metropolitan Police was convicted of placing lives at risk in the operation that led to the death of 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes on July 22, 2005.

The force had denied the charge, saying the killing was an error, not a crime. Police chief Ian Blair issued a statement after the verdict, expressing "my deepest regrets" over de Menezes' death.

The Brazilian electrician was killed by police who followed him into London's Stockwell subway station from an apartment building that had been linked to a failed bomber, and shot him seven times after he boarded a train.

The shooting occurred the day after a group of would-be suicide bombers botched an attack on London's transit system, and two weeks after a similar attack killed 52 commuters and four bombers on three subway trains and a bus.

Prosecutors told the jury at London's Central Criminal Court that police killed de Menezes and put the lives of others at risk during their anti-terrorism operation because of flawed planning and chaos at headquarters.

No individual officers have been charged over de Menezes' death. The foreman of the jury told the court that blame did not rest with Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, the officer in charge of the operation.

"In reaching this verdict the jury attaches no personal culpability to Commander Dick," he said.

Police lawyer Ronald Thwaites had argued that a prosecution on charges of violating health and safety laws should never have been brought and was a last resort by prosecutors who had failed to find enough evidence to charge any individual with murder or manslaughter.

Thwaites told the jury that de Menezes was shot because he had behaved suspiciously and "because when he was challenged by police he did not comply with them, but reacted precisely as they had been briefed a suicide bomber might react at the point of detonating his bomb."

But jurors agreed with prosecutors that the police operation was seriously flawed.

After two of the bombing suspects were identified as living in the same south London apartment building as de Menezes, police developed a plan to watch the building and stop anyone who came out for questioning. Firearms officers charged with making such stops did not arrive at the scene until several hours later, when de Menezes had already left.

Two teams of surveillance officers tailed de Menezes as he left his apartment and boarded two public buses before entering the subway system.

The prosecution said there was no good reason for the police to fail to stop a possible attacker from entering London's subway network, just two weeks after suicide bombers had killed 52 people.

"If he (de Menezes) had been a suicide bomber emerging with a backpack and a murderous intent, no one had any established plan that could have dealt with him because the firearms officers had not arrived," prosecution lawyer Clare Montgomery said.

Surveillance officers never positively identified de Menezes as a suspect or completely ruled him out, prosecutors said. Firearms officers, who arrived on the scene after de Menezes had entered the subway, believed he was a bomber and shot him dead.