According to this NY Times article, the man who as shot yesterday on the London Tube had no connection to the string of bombings and bombing attempts in London.
LONDON, July 23 - Scotland Yard admitted Saturday that a man police officers chased and shot to death at point-blank range in front of horrified subway passengers on Friday had nothing to do with the investigation into the bombing attacks here.
Senior investigators and officials of the Metropolitan Police said the man was believed to be South American; it was not known whether he was Muslim. No explosives or weapons were found on the man's body after the shooting, police officials said.
The incident sent shock waves through the country's 1.6 million Muslims, already alarmed by a publicly acknowledged shoot-to-kill policy directed against suspected suicide bombers. And it has dealt a major setback to the police investigation into suspected terrorist cells in London.
"This really is an appalling set of circumstances," said John O'Connor, a former police commander. "The consequences are quite horrible."
Azzam Tamimi, head of the Muslim Association of Britain, said: "This is very frightening. People will be afraid to walk the streets, or go on the tube, or carry anything in their hands."
The admission by the police that it had killed a man not involved in the investigation revived and fueled an already tense debate over the arming of British police officers. It also came after a series of police misstatements since July 7, when four bombing attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus in London killed 56 people, including the four suicide bombers, and injured hundreds of others.
While frightening that this person was seemingly completely innocent of everything short of wearing a bulky jacket on a summer day, it is a breath of fresh air to see the London Police and Scotland Yard admitting to the error.
You might be interested in this post here about the Met and the shooting.
Posted by: Antonia | July 24, 2005 at 02:19 PM