Police shoot 'dead' a suspect, London...

[Aardvark747]

'SUICIDE BOMBER' SHOT

Police have shot a suspected suicide bomber at a tube station in south London.

Marksmen opened fire near Stockwell Tube station as passengers were evacuated. It is thought the man was killed.


Passenger Briony Coetsee said: "We were on the Tube and then we suddenly heard someone say 'get out, get out' and then we heard gunshots."

Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "There is no word on whether he has been killed or simply injured."

Air and road ambulance crews have been sent to the scene.

If the suspect is confirmed to be a suicide bomber, it would mark the fifth attempted terrorist attack on London in less than a day.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We can confirm that just after 10am armed officers shot a male at Stockwell underground station."

The man is thought to have been either stepping on to the train or was on the platform.

Brunt said: "He was probably shot in the head. There is no confirmation of that."

Police have been given orders to shoot to kill if they believe someone is about to detonate a bomb.

Brunt said: "The officer or officers involved in this clearly felt this suspect was about to detonate a bomb."

Tube services on the Victoria and Northern Lines were suspended at the request of police..

 

[financeguy]

Police have surrounded an East London mosque.

 

[karls77]

Doesn't sound like he had a rucksack on. Seems odd that they shot the guy as it sounds like they had enough officers there to restrain him. Wonder why they couldn't have taken him alive???

 

[MadelynIris]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/22/london.tube/index.html

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Police in London are reported to have shot a man dead at a subway station, a day after bombers apprarently failed to repeat the carnage of the July 7 blasts.

Unconfirmed media reports said the man shot at Stockwell station -- close to the Oval, one of four sites targeted by suspected bombers on Thursday -- was a suicide bomber.

One witness, Mark Whitby told the BBC on Friday the man appeared not to be carrying anything but was wearing a thick coat that looked padded.

Whitby said an Asian man was shot five times at close range after he had jumped on a train "They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. He's dead," witness Mark Whitby told the BBC. "He looked like a cornered fox. He looked petrified."

Police confirmed to CNN Friday that "armed officers shot a male at Stockwell Underground station." They would not say if the man was dead.

Journalist Chris Martin said he was waiting at Stockwell station and a train pulled in when several men burst on to the platform.

"There was a lot of shouting, I thought it was football fans or something," he told the Press Association.

"There was obviously some sort of altercation going on, and then they came flying on to the platform and these guys just threw this man into the open doors of the train.

"Then I heard shots, I thought it was three but someone else said five. It sounded like a silencer gun going off, and then there was blind panic, with people shouting and screaming and just running away.

"I didn't actually see the gun, but I heard this 'bang, bang, bang.'"

London Underground said the Victoria and Northern Lines were suspended.

The shooting Friday came as police were hunting the bombers who struck London's transport network the day before.

Perhaps because he was loaded with explosives?

 

[enajh2]

The operation at the mosque has now been stood down and the cordone removed, according to BBC News 24

 

[karls77]

Perhaps because he was loaded with explosives?

Could be, I did read somewhere that he was described as wearing a big winter-type coat.

 

[karls77]

From Sky News:

Witness Mark Whitby was on the train as he saw a big man wearing a large coat and "looking absolutely petrified" lurch through the doors.

Admitting to being "totally distraught", he went on: "He half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor.

"The policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."

Fuckin' hell!! One second you're just sitting on the tube and the next some guy gets shot right in front of you!

 

[MadelynIris]

Fuckin' hell!! One second you're just sitting on the tube and the next some guy gets shot right in front of you!

Guess that's better than the guy pulling the cord. Talk about ruining your day!

 

[karls77]

From the BBC:

Another passenger on the train, Anthony Larkin, told BBC News the man had been wearing a "bomb belt with wires coming out".

 

[enajh2]

Police press conference has been put back an hour to 14.45

Or 14.53 if you go by the Interference clock!!

 

[enajh2]

Police snipers and a "big track" remote controlled robotic bomb disposal vehicle reported on Harrow Road!!

 

[DrTeeth]

The operation at the mosque has now been stood down and the cordone removed, according to BBC News 24

I believe there had been a bombthreat at that Mosque.

 

[financeguy]

Bomb disposal officers on Harrow road....

 

[enajh2]

Bomb disposal officers on Harrow road....

That was implied in my post The Police do not have their own Bomb Disposal officers. I believe that technically it is a division of the army

 

[karls77]

Both Sky News and the BBC have CCTV photos of yesterday's bombers up on the web

 

[Sherry Darling]

This just in from BBC--the man shot was not connected to the bombings.

Ask me again why I objected to this over the protests of those who were satisfied that the cops must have known what they were doing??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4711021.stm

 

[financeguy]

Major cock up.

 

[trevster2k]

Shocking yet predictable turn of events especially with shoot first ask questions later policy. Terrorism is not the biggest threat to society, statistically they are a nuisance, dramatic and effective, but still hardly an everyday threat to the average human being unlike automobile accidents, household or workplace deaths, etc. Sorry but I think the more governments attempt to "make people feel safer" gives more power and voice to the terrorists, we are empowering their agenda since after every attack we seem determined to implement more security policies which erode civil rights and freedoms, which some argue is what terrorists want, well, we are giving it to them on a silver platter.

 

[financeguy]

Shocking yet predictable turn of events especially with shoot first ask questions later policy. Terrorism is not the biggest threat to society, statistically they are a nuisance, dramatic and effective, but still hardly an everyday threat to the average human being unlike automobile accidents, household or workplace deaths, etc. Sorry but I think the more governments attempt to "make people feel safer" gives more power and voice to the terrorists, we are empowering their agenda since after every attack we seem determined to implement more security policies which erode civil rights and freedoms, which some argue is what terrorists want, well, we are giving it to them on a silver platter.

While you are 110% correct in your view that governments exploit the issue to steal more power for themselves, and you are also totally correct in implying that in almost all countries, auto accidents kill far more than terrorism, I would say the London police have been under a lot of pressure, without trying to excuse their action.

 

[melon]

This is one of those days I'm glad I'm white.

It's crazy how everyone else is "suspect" merely by the color of their skin.

Melon

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

It's crazy how everyone else is "suspect" merely by the color of their skin.

I don't disagree that people of a particular appearance are more likely to be viewed as suspicious by the police, but it's hardly the only reason they had for being suspicious of this man. He'd left a building the police had under surveillance in connection with the previous bombings, he repeatedly ignored police requests to stop, he ran from the police for quite a distance before entering a tube station, again he ignored the police telling him they were armed and requesting he stop, then he ran onto a tube train which was about to leave.

I'm not in any way excusing the actions of the police, nor am I suggesting that someone's appearance isn't a factor when the police decide someone looks suspicious, but in this case he wasn't a suspect merely because of the colour of his skin - his actions were suspicious as well.

 

[deep]

Was the victim one of these four men?

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

^No.

 

[TheQuiet1]

I realise that it must be a very stressful job, where you are forced to make split-second decisions under immense pressure but still, SO19 do seem to be shooting an awful lot of people who are later proved to be unarmed. And I'm talking months before these terrorist attacks and after the 2002 Real IRA bombings (so it's not like tension was especially high). One guy was shot holding a wrapped-up chair leg that officers thought was a shotgun.

I'm not saying that the people mistakenly shot are entirely blameless (if armed police tell you put the weapon down, YOU PUT IT DOWN!) but just these are professional firearm officers who do this day in day out, I kinda expect more of them but perhaps I'm expecting too much, they are human after all.

 

[deep]

I listen to BBC radio
and heard the Police say emphatically
that the dead guy was involved.


The public always feels reassured when a suspect is caught or identified.


I wonder who these four guys are?

 

[karls77]

This is tragic but if they did warn the guy, why the hell did he keep running? I don't envy the police at times like these as they would catch major hell if they had a chance to stop a suicide bomber but held off cause they weren't 100% sure.

I imagine the police are pissed off cause they were caught off guard by the recent bombings and are probably over-compensating to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Yeah, the police did fuck up in this instance but the ultimate responsibility for this lies with the terrorists as this guy would never have been shot if 7/7 hadn't happened.

 

[financeguy]

This is tragic but if they did warn the guy, why the hell did he keep running? I don't envy the police at times like these as they would catch major hell if they had a chance to stop a suicide bomber but held off cause they weren't 100% sure.

I imagine the police are pissed off cause they were caught off guard by the recent bombings and are probably over-compensating to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Yeah, the police did fuck up in this instance but the ultimate responsibility for this lies with the terrorists as this guy would never have been shot if 7/7 hadn't happened.

If I went out tonight and drank 10 beers, then drove home and knocked someone over, could I claim the 'ultimate responsibility' lies with the bar-owner for selling me the beer? Or maybe we could trace it back to the person who invented alcohol, and say it was his fault?

 

[deep]

If I went out tonight and drank 10 beers, then drove home and knocked someone over,

if you look muslim or even east asian

i will shoot you

you fucking terrorist!

 

[financeguy]

if you look muslim or even east asian

i will shoot you

you fucking terrorist!

If you did that you would have f**cked up but it wouldn't be your fault, it would be the fault of the terrorists.

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

I listen to BBC radio
and heard the Police say emphatically
that the dead guy was involved.

Really? I check the BBC news website regularly and listen to BBC Radio 4 news and I didn't hear any such comment. When did you hear that? (I don't mean to sound like I don't believe you because I do, I'm just curious about who said that and when.)