The family of Jean Charles de Menezes made their appeal at a news conference following an emotional visit to the London subway station where police shot him repeatedly in the head on July 22 after mistaking him for a suicide bomber.
“In this case, Jean was treated like a mad dog and no human being should be treated that way,” said his mother, Maria Otone de Menezes, flanked by another son, her husband and other relatives.
“The police responsible should be taken to justice,” she said through an interpreter as her son placed a comforting arm around her shoulder.
The son, Giovani da Silva, said the officers responsible for the 27-year-old electrician’s death should be arrested, investigated and prosecuted.
The family earlier retraced the steps de Menezes took from his apartment in south London to the subway station, where a crowd watched as they laid a bouquet of white chrysanthemums.
“Look what they’ve done to my son,” the mother shrieked before the family disappeared into the station, which had been closed to allow them to visit the platform where de Menezes boarded the train on which he was shot.
Mrs de Menezes and her husband, Matozinhos Otone Da Silva Menezes, clutched each other tightly as they stood on the northbound Northern Line platform, close to where their son was shot.—AFP