The Killing of Jean Charles de Menezes

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2022

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 22 July 2005, an unarmed Brazilian man was shot dead by anti-terrorism police at Stockwell Tube station, in London.

Jean Charles de Menezes was shot seven times in the head because he was mistaken for a terror suspect.

The killing made headlines all over the world and his family demanded justice.

Matt Pintus spoke to Jean Charles’s cousin and best friend, Patricia da Silva, in 2022.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

(Photo: Patricia da Silva in front of mural of Jean Charles de Menezes. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this edition of the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service
0:09.0	with me, Matt Pintus.
0:10.9	Today I'm bringing you the story of Jean-Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian man who was shot
0:17.3	dead by police in London.
0:19.3	They thought he was a terrorist, but he wasn't.
0:23.7	It's a summer's day in London on the 22nd of July 2005.
0:29.6	Patricia DeSilver has just finished work.
0:32.6	I went to the library to use the computer to access the internet.
0:38.2	And I saw the police shoot to kill one guy's tube station.
0:45.4	Good afternoon. Armed police have shot a man dead at Stockwell Underground Station in South London.
0:50.9	Witnesses say the man was chased onto a tube train by Plain Coe's offices
0:54.5	and then shot at close range in front of dozens of terrified passengers.
0:58.7	I remember, I am feeling not bad, not good. I am feeling strange.
1:04.9	When Patricia gets home, her flatmate and cousin Jean is nowhere to be seen.
1:10.1	But it's Friday night that started the weekend.
1:13.1	She thinks he's probably out partying.
1:15.8	The next morning, Patricia goes to work.
1:18.4	But this time when she gets back, there is someone in the flat.
1:21.7	It's her friend Jasou and he looks upset.
1:24.2	They said to me Jean was arrested because because he suspected to be a terrorist.
1:31.4	I said to him, what? What you tell me? I said, yes, Patricia, the police contact us and the show
1:39.5	was the Jean photo. And they said, Jean was arrested a suspicion of terrorists. I think I was in a
	...

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