Electrician’s family may sue police, says cousin

THE family of the innocent Brazilian man killed by anti-terror police at Stockwell Tube station may sue, his cousin said yesterday.

Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, was shot in the head at close range on Friday, the day after the failed suicide bombings.

Today, his cousin Alex Pereira told BBC Breakfast that the police “have to pay” for the mistake.

Asked if the family was taking legal action, he said: “They have to pay for that in many ways, because if they do not, they are going to kill many people, they are going to kill thousands of people. They just kill the first person they see, that’s what they did.”

The 28-year-old added: “They killed my cousin, they could kill anyone.”

A police chief defended the shoot-to-kill policy as a last resort today.

Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “Shoot to kill is very good headline but, in fact, what we have to do is we have a series of tactics which range from disruption to the very, very final moment when you have to shoot and the aim is to prevent the criminal or suspect causing harm to other people.”