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07/22/2005: "London shooting"
Info about this is still just trickling through, but eye-witness accounts on BBC say that the guy was chased onto a subway train by several plain-clothed police, who tackled him then shot him 5 or 6 times at close range. One can only assume that they believed he was carrying a bomb which he intended to detonate. Well, that's sort of understandable. Like any other use of firearms by the police, they will have to answer for their actions in due course, showing that they had reasonable grounds for their suspicion, and that no non-lethal alternative was reasonably open to them.
What I'm really confused about is this report on Sky News that 'Specialist officers had been tailing the man shot at Stockwell Tube station from his home, says Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt.' Now if they'd been following him all that way, and really believed he was carrying a bomb, why the hell was he allowed to get as far as a crowded subway train?
Of course, it may be that Sky has it all wrong - certainly, the Bebb isn't saying anything of the sort - but if they're right, it sounds like a bit of a cock-up, one way or t'other.
