The UK's Independent Police Complaints Commission says it is likely to send its report on the July 22 police shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes to the Crown Prosecution service, making criminal charges against the officers involved that much more likely.
An excerpt from the BBC story:
IPCC chairman Nick Hardwick said its investigation had to decide whether its findings indicated that criminal offences may have taken place.
We are confident we know, second by second, what happened on that train
Nick Hardwick, IPCC chairmanThis was a lower threshold than for the CPS, which would then have to decide whether to bring actual charges against any of the officers involved, he said.
Mr Hardwick said it was "likely" but not definite that the report would be sent the CPS to consider bringing charges.
"It's for the CPS to decide, not us whether there are criminal charges to be brought against anybody and if so what they are," he said.
The IPCC's director of legal services John Tate said that if the report was sent to the CPS, it would include a list of the criminal offences which may have been committed.
The IPCC would not detail the nature of the alleged offences which the CPS could potentially have to consider, although it is believed they could include offences as serious as murder or manslaughter.
While charges aren't a certainty in this case, I suspected they would be a strong possibility.
Shooting someone in the head seven times (11 shots were fired in total; one hit the victim in the shoulder and three others missed) is an act of panic, not one of a trained, disciplined officer.
Physical evidence started to chip away at the police side of the story. They had said de Menezes had jumped the turnstiles. Video showed him calmly walking through.
They said he was wearing an unseasonably thick, padded coat. He was wearing a light denim jacket.
And on it goes.
I personally accept that use of deadly force* to stop a terror attack has to remain an option. But if we're going to give anti-terror officers that sort of power, they had better use it extremely judiciously or face the consequences.
* In a Thursday post about the Tookie Williams case, I stated I was opposed to the death penalty. In attempting to prevent a terror attack, however, if shooting one suspect who is shown to be an imminent threat to the lives of dozens of people, if not more, then it regrettably becomes the only logical course of action.
And that can lead to tragedy, such as with the incident in Miami on Wednesday.
Here's an excerpt from the NYT story:
The Miami-Dade Police Department, which is investigating whether the shooting was justified, said it had interviewed more than 100 passengers and crew members from Flight 924 and that preliminary evidence suggested Mr. (Rigoberto) Alpizar had repeatedly refused to surrender. ...
Chief Willie Marshall, who leads the Miami-Dade criminal investigations unit, said Mr. Alpizar had run off the plane and, while on the passageway, reached into a bag that was "strapped to his chest." That was when both air marshals opened fire with multiple shots, he said.
Let's see where this investigation leads, but my initial suspicion is that this shooting, while tragic (Alpizar was reportedly bipolar) was probably justified under the circumstances.