Ian Blair learned 24 hours later that Brazilian was innocent

LONDON: London’s police chief Ian Blair, in an interview with a Sunday newspaper, said 24 hours passed before he knew that a man shot dead by armed police as a suspected suicide bomber was in fact innocent. Blair told the News of the World that he first learned that Brazilian national Jean Charles de Menezes was not linked with the London bombings when a colleague told him that there was “a lack of connection”. He recalled thinking: “That’s dreadful, what are we going to do about that?” Relatives of the 27-year-old electrician – shot in the tense days after the July 7 bombings and a failed attempt on July 21 to repeat them – have called for Blair to resign as Metropolitan Police commissioner. Blair this week denied allegations of a cover-up after documents leaked to ITV television sharply contradicted the initial version of events given by police and witnesses. Blair told the News of the World: “Somebody came in at 10.30 am (on July 23) and said the equivalent of ‘Houston, we have a problem’.” “He didn’t use those words, but he said, ‘We have some difficulty here, there is a lack of connection’.” “I thought, ‘That’s dreadful, what are we going to do about that?’ afp

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