LONDON, 30 September 2005 — Scotland Yard confirmed yesterday that the two officers from the Metropolitan Police’s armed squad who were involved in the fatal killing of 27-year-old Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes a day after the failed 21/7 London suicide bombings, have been served with notices warning them that they could face criminal charges relating to the shooting.

The officers are believed to have been served with notices detailing allegations against them, which according to police sources is usually the first step in any disciplinary process that could lead to a trial. “Any action taken by a police officer can result in criminal charges. They have been made aware of that,” stressed a police statement.

De Menezes was shot seven times in the head on a tube train at Stockwell Station after being followed by armed plain clothes anti-terrorist police a day after the 21/7 botched attacks on the London transport system.

He was allegedly mistaken for Hussain Osman, one of the five alleged suspects involved in the conspiracy to bomb the transport system. Unfortunately for de Menezes, he lived in the same block of flats as Osman in Tulse Hill in south east London.

Scotland Yard realized that a tragic mistake had occurred, but instead of coming clean and admitting the error and sympathizing unreservedly with the family of the deceased, senior police officers went on the offensive defending the Metropolitan Police’s ‘shoot-to-kill-to-protect’ policy, stressing that the officers involved were uncertain whether de Menezes was carrying a bomb strap or not.

As such they killed him to pre-empt him detonating any device. In the immediate aftermath of the killing, de Menezes was described as wearing unusually heavy clothes in summer, suggesting he had something to hide under his coat.

Police reports also suggested that he had run into Stockwell station even jumping over the ticket barrier. All these reports were proven to be wrong following a leak from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating the shooting.

The embarrassment for the Metropolitan Police over the de Menezes affair was compounded when a London Evening Standard investigation on Wednesday quoting senior Scotland Yard sources, revealed the “utter confusion” in the operation to track de Menezes and serious failures of communication at a senior level that led to the Brazilian being shot seven times in the head by officers who mistakenly thought he was a suicide bomber suspect Hussein Osman.

On Wednesday, Matuzinhos Otone Da Silva and Maria Otone de Menezes, the parents of Jean Charles de Menezes embarked on the harrowing task of retracing the final journey taken by their son.

“Look what they’ve done to my son,” a visibly distressed mother uttered in anguish as she was led into Stockwell tube station and to the spot on the platform where her son was shot as he attempted to board a train. She accused police of gunning down her son “like a mad dog.”

The parents delivered an angry snub to Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, saying they did not want to meet him and he should be “punished” along with those who pulled the trigger, and demanded his resignation.

“Sir Ian Blair would already have resigned if Jean Charles was from a richer country,” she stressed.

yesterday they visited the London headquarters of the IPCC where they were welcomed by its chairman, Nick Hardwick; another commissioner, Mehmuda Mian Pritchard; and a senior member of the investigating team.

In fact, according to the IPCC, the de Menezes family, who are in the UK on a two-week visit paid for by Scotland Yard, were the first to see much of the evidence uncovered about the shooting thus far.

“We will give the family as long as they need and as much information as we can about the investigation,” a spokesman said.

The couple had arrived in London with another son Giovani and cousin Alex from Sao Paolo in Brazil on Tuesday on an emotional journey, which hopefully would end in closure for them at least as far as the tragic and untimely death of their electrician son.

Sir Ian Blair last week admitted to a BBC news program that he had considered resigning in the aftermath of the shooting when it became apparent that police had mistakenly killed the wrong man in a terrible tragedy.