Shooting on the Tube

Breaking news:

Shooting at Stockwell on the Northern Line. Armed police shouting at people to get off a train, eyewitness reports say one person has been shot.

Scotland Yard have confirmed that their officers have shot a person at Stockwell.

news.bbc.co.uk...
Mr Whitby, told BBC News: "I saw an Asian guy run onto the train hotly pursued by three plain-clothes police officers.

"One of them was carrying a black handgun - it looked like an automatic - they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him."

A distraught eyewitness interviewed stated that police close in pursuit pushed the victim to the ground and unloaded five shot into the man. This less that 10 feet away form the witness.


[edit on 22/7/05 by JAK]

No need to kill him if three coppers have overpowered him. He may have provided very useful information that could prevent further attacks. Sounds like a "silencing" operation.

^ The guy ran into a tube train full of people! If he was a suicide bomber what else can they do apart from kill him on the spot?

How do you know he was a suicide bomber? If he was being "hotly pursued" it suggests he wasn't carrying a rucksack full of explosives. Eyewitnesses don't mention he was carrying anything.

When the 3 coppers jump on his back all they have to do is cuff him and the situation is under control. By shooting him they could even setoff something, especially if they do five times as reported by eyewitnesses.

news.bbc.co.uk...

I completly agree.
If the guy is a suicide bomber then shooting a guy strapped up/carrying bombs wouldnt be the best approach.... Also the guy sprinting onto the train being persued by police isnt what you would expect from a heavily bomb ladden terrorist.

If he was a suspect then the police pouncing on him would be enough to subdue him, then they cuff him.....

Jumping on the guy and then shooting him 5 times at point blank range with an pistol is a good way to silence him.

The eye wittness sitting no more that 15 feet away give no mention that the guy was armed, carrying anything and it doesnt even suggest that the guy was dangerous in any shape or form.....

Very strange.... will be interesting to see the story that come out around this.

[edit on 22-7-2005 by Kainen]

Another eyewitness has said that he was carrying a bomb belt. If that's the case then they definitely did the right thing shooting him there and then. But why hadn't he detonated it?!?

What the exact events are at the moment is very unclear - the witness statements don't really match up, as is usually the case with something so out of the ordinary.

However it does sound like they overpowered and shot him. We have no idea at the moment why] they were pursuing him or why they felt the need to shoot him. However I'm sure that if there was any possibility he was carrying a bomb you would not want to try and arrest him but just take him out.

One witness did say the guy was wearing a "heavy winter coat" which would see strange as it is 25C here at the moment with hardly a breeze. Perhaps he had explosives strapped to him?

Strange atmosphere here in London at the moment, continuous background noise of helicopters and sirens.

I hope they catch the rest of the of them - so that we can get intelligence from them, but also so they rot in jail for the rest of their lives, rather than be die "heroic martyrs".

Eyewitness report


A passenger has told how he saw armed police officers shoot a man on a Tube train at Stockwell.
Mark Whitby said: "I was sitting on the train... I heard a load of noise, people saying, 'Get out, get down'.

"I saw an Asian guy. He ran on to the train, he was hotly pursued by three plain clothes officers, one of them was wielding a black handgun.

"He half tripped... they pushed him to the floor and basically unloaded five shots into him," he told BBC News 24.

"As [the suspect] got onto the train I looked at his face, he looked sort of left and right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, a cornered fox.

"He looked absolutely petrified and then he sort of tripped, but they were hotly pursuing him, [they] couldn't have been any more than two or three feet behind him at this time and he half tripped and was half pushed to the floor and 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.

"He [the suspect] had a baseball cap on and quite a sort of thickish coat - it was a coat you'd wear in winter, sort of like a padded jacket.

I was distraught, totally distraught. It was no less than five yards away from where I was sitting

"He might have had something concealed under there, I don't know. But it looked sort of out of place with the sort of weather we've been having, the sort of hot humid weather.

"He was largely built, he was quite a chubby sort of guy.

"I didn't see any guns or anything like that - I didn't see him carrying anything. I didn't even see a bag to be quite honest.

"I got into the ticket hall. I was approached by a policeman and London Underground staff asking me if I needed counselling.

"I was just basically saying I've just seen a man shot dead. I've seen a man shot dead. I was distraught, totally distraught. It was no less than five yards away from where I was sitting. I actually saw it with my own eyes."

BBC link

OK since the news that the guy killed had nothing to do with the bombing it's emerged how he came to be shot. The police had been watching his house and when he came out in fairly hot weather wearing a puffer jacket they suspected something was up. They started running after him and the rest you know.

But it does seem that all of us, especially the Asian community therefore have a lot to be scared about. I mean he's basically been killed for wearing a puffer jacket there. It does make me worry - we have to fear not only the terrorists but the guardians as well.

The question is though? Why was this man running away? why did he not stop when told by armed police...

I think these questions need answered

Britain has become a fascist police state and this shooting is the just evidence to the totalitarian regime in britain. I think that their imperialist ambitions are in need of checking.

Asala - that's actually something I forgot to say - the shocking thing, as I understand it is that these were plain clothed police and no one around actually heard them shout "stop, police."

In light of the hostility some muslims have been reported - this guy could've simply thought he was about to be lynched for being Asian!

I think the guy was foreign and his English vocabulary was perhaps limited.

People reported seeing wires from his coat, this could have been an MP3 player or such and he didn't hear any warnings. He probably panicked when he saw plain clothes armed officers running towards him and made a dash for the train.

Still though, I'm wondering why he was tracked from his house and the Police didn't make a move sooner. Perhaps they noticed him early because he looked suspicious with that big coat on.

Just to also update this one,

The man is thought to be South American possible from Brazil,

Its sad an innocent victim has been shot, but London is living on a knife edge at the moment. I strongly advise any person who is Asian not to carry a rucksack on your back on Buses or Tube trains. Anyone with common sense will know if you do that you will be suspect. The SAS have got a team in London to try and stop the bombings.

news.bbc.co.uk...