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Menezes identification 'definite' Menezes identification 'definite'
(41 minutes later)
A firearms officer shot Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station after hearing the Brazilian was "definitely our man", an inquest has heard.A firearms officer shot Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station after hearing the Brazilian was "definitely our man", an inquest has heard.
The officer - using the code name C2 - said he had heard a surveillance officer positively identify the suspect as failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.The officer - using the code name C2 - said he had heard a surveillance officer positively identify the suspect as failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.
Giving evidence in open court for the first time, C2 also said it had been the greatest threat he had faced.Giving evidence in open court for the first time, C2 also said it had been the greatest threat he had faced.
Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head on 22 July 2005.Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head on 22 July 2005.
C2 - who shot Mr de Menezes after his colleague C12 opened fire - recalled how, after Mr de Menezes had boarded a bus towards Stockwell, south London, a surveillance officer had identified him as Osman over police radios. 'Very distressing'
"I heard them say, 'This is definitely our man'," he told a jury at the Oval cricket ground, south London. C2 - who shot Mr de Menezes after his colleague C12 opened fire - recalled how, after Mr de Menezes had boarded a bus towards Stockwell, south London, a surveillance officer had identified him as Osman.
"I heard over the radio that there was a surveillance officer on the bus and I heard them say this was definitely our man." I killed an innocent man... I think about that every day Firearms officer C2
When asked what else he heard as he pursued the bus in a car with two other firearms officers, he said: "I heard over the radio that he was nervous, acting strangely and that he was standing up in the stairs acting very twitchy." "I heard over the radio there was a surveillance officer on the bus and I heard them say this was definitely our man," he told a jury at the Oval cricket ground, south London.
Earlier in his evidence, C2 offered his condolences to the de Menezes family and said he was a father himself. When asked what else he had heard as he pursued the bus in a car with two other firearms officers, he said: "I heard over the radio that he was nervous, acting strangely and he was standing up in the stairs acting very twitchy."
C2 described the sequence of events leading up to the death of Mr de Menezes. But before reaching the actual shooting, C2 paused to offer his condolences to the Brazilian's family.
He said: "This is very distressing for me. I completely respect and understand how difficult it is for them.
"I would like to say that I am a father and that if he were my son, I would be utterly devastated."
'Innocent man'
The inquest heard that C2, a specialist firearms officer for 17 years, had never fired at a suspect before.
The officer said he had been left with blood spattered on his gun, hands, arms, face and all over his clothes.
He had initially felt "relieved" because he had believed he had saved his own life and those of his colleagues and the public from a suicide bomber intent on blowing himself up.
But he had learned at noon the next day that the person he shot had been Mr de Menezes.
"This is something that is very hard to explain. I was deeply shocked, I just couldn't believe it," he said.
"As a firearms instructor and as a specialist firearms officer, I know it is an individual officer's decision to fire a weapon and it was my responsibility, and I killed an innocent man.
"I think about that every day."