Ex-police shooter breaks silence about tragic tube incident after two decades

A former Met police marksman (known as C12) has shared his account of Jean Charles de Menezes shooting for the first-time in almost 20 years: the incident happened at Stockwell tube station back in july-2005

The officer explained he was “100% sure“ everyone was about to die that day‚ when they mistook a Brazilian electrician for a terror suspect. In a new channel-4 documentary the ex-marksman describes the events that led to the tragic outcome

Everything told me that I was going to die - thats why I acted like I did

London was super-alert after terror attacks killed 52 people just couple weeks before‚ and another failed bombing attempt happened day before the incident. Police were watching a building in south london where one suspect lived; thats where they first spotted de Menezes

The surveillance team got suspicious when they saw him:
* Getting off the bus at Brixton
* Getting back on again
* Going to Stockwell station
* Acting differently than usual passengers

The firearms team got a quick look at a bad-quality fax photo of the real suspect who looked kind-of similar to de Menezes. When they got to the tube station‚ C12 and his partner rushed to stop him; they thought he was gonna blow himself up

After the shooting next day‚ C12 learned about the mistake. He says he cant remember the victims face which makes it easier to deal with memories. The documentary points out how Met didnt fix wrong info about de Menezes jumping barriers - it was actually the police officer who did that