De Menezes shooting 'could happen again'
Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008 22:28
Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead in July 2005
An innocent person could be killed by police again, an officer has admitted at the inquest into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick admitted to Michael Mansfield, counsel for the de Menezes family, today that a similar tragic event could happen in the future.
Mr de Menezes was shot dead by armed Metropolitan police officers at Stockwell tube station in July 2005, after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.
Responding to Mr Mansfield's questioning, Ms Dick said: "I'm afraid, sir, I do believe that this or something like this could happen again. The nature of these operations is that they are incredibly high risk to all concerned.
"And that is because of the nature of the threat that we face from suicide terrorists, and the difficulty that there is in dealing with such a threat and the very fast timescale in which these things can happen."
Ms Dick said that is was the job of the Met to reduce the risk to the public as best as possible, all the time.
"[But] I do fear that in the future a bomber might not be prevented from setting a bomb, and there would be a huge scrutiny of why we did not manage to prevent that," she added.
"And equally, I pray it doesn't happen, but it is possible that an innocent member of the public might die in circumstances like this.
"Our job is to minimise the risks. Given the huge scale of the risks, we may only be able to do that to a less than perfect extent."
Ms Dick was in charge of the operation on the day that Mr de Menezes was killed.
The inquest continues.