Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, head of London's police counterterrorism unit " ... Officers initially claimed the Brazilian was a suspect linked to the attacks and police said his bulky clothing and panicked manner had caused commanders to fear he was a suicide bomber. Investigations later showed de Menezes had not run, worn bulky clothing or resisted arrest. ... "
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5023691.html
U.K. terror official misled public about killing, report says
Houston Chronicle/Associated Press
Aug. 2, 2007
LONDON — A senior British police officer knew within hours that marksmen had wrongly killed a Brazilian electrician they had mistaken for a terrorist, but deliberately withheld the information from superiors and misled the public, an inquiry into the killing reported Thursday.
Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head in a subway car by counterterrorism police hunting suspects following London's 2005 transit bombings.
The report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission said that Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, head of London's police counterterrorism unit, told journalists on the afternoon of the shooting that de Menezes, 27, was not linked to the failed bombings a day earlier.
But hours later he allowed the police force to put out a press release saying it was not known if the dead man was one of the failed bombers.
The July 22, 2005, shooting occurred 15 days after four suicide bombers killed 52 bus and subway passengers in the capital, and just a day after a failed attempt to detonate bombs on the transport system. Tensions across London were running high.
Officers initially claimed the Brazilian was a suspect linked to the attacks and police said his bulky clothing and panicked manner had caused commanders to fear he was a suicide bomber. Investigations later showed de Menezes had not run, worn bulky clothing or resisted arrest.
