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| Officer weeps at Menezes hearing | Officer weeps at Menezes hearing |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| A specialist firearms officer has wept in court when giving evidence about how officers on his team came to shoot dead Jean Charles de Menezes. | A specialist firearms officer has wept in court when giving evidence about how officers on his team came to shoot dead Jean Charles de Menezes. |
| The officer, codenamed "Ralph" told the Old Bailey, that "despite the outcome I was very proud of them that day". | The officer, codenamed "Ralph" told the Old Bailey, that "despite the outcome I was very proud of them that day". |
| The Metropolitan Police is on trial over the 2005 shooting of the Brazilian at Stockwell Tube station. | The Metropolitan Police is on trial over the 2005 shooting of the Brazilian at Stockwell Tube station. |
| The force denies breaking health and safety laws when it mistook Mr de Menezes for a suicide bomber. | The force denies breaking health and safety laws when it mistook Mr de Menezes for a suicide bomber. |
| It faces a single charge of exposing the public to risk. | |
| Special bullets | |
| Scotland Yard has been accused of making "fundamental failures" in the way it handled the operation. | |
| Specialist firearms officers used hollow-point 124 grain bullets, employed by US air marshals, to kill Mr de Menezes, the court heard on Monday. | |
| A senior firearms adviser, known as "Andrew" to protect his anonymity, said the decision to use this ammunition was made to help police chasing the failed 21 July suicide bombers. | |
| He also stressed that officers were trained to fire "as a last resort, when conventional methods have failed". | |
| The adviser, who was an acting superintendent at the time of the fatal shooting, told the court: "The bullet flattens on impact and immediately incapacitates the target. | |
| "This is a more effective bullet in the context of dealing with a suicide bomber as there is more chance of incapacitating a subject with a single shot." | |
| Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head on a train at Stockwell station on 22 July 2005, after being wrongly identified as one of the 21/7 would-be bombers. |