The mother of a man shot dead in a London Underground station after being mistaken for a terrorist has said “everyone should watch” a new dramatisation of her son’s killing.
Jean Charles de Menezes was shot seven times by two police marksmen in Stockwell underground station on July 22 2005.
Two weeks after the 7/7 London bombings which killed 52 people, Mr de Menezes was wrongly identified as one of the fugitives involved in another failed bombing attempt the previous day.
Would-be suicide bombers had targeted the transport network on July 21, but their devices failed to explode.
Mr de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, was mistaken for one of the suspects because they were linked to the same block of flats.
No officers were ever prosecuted for the killing but the Met was fined for breaching health and safety laws, and Dame Cressida Dick, who became Metropolitan Police commissioner in 2017, led the operation in which Mr de Menezes died.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is a matter of very deep regret to the Metropolitan Police Service.
“Our thoughts remain with his family and we reiterate our apology to them.”
Now, a drama, starring Line of Duty’s Daniel Mays and Being Human’s Russell Tovey, explores the days following the 7/7 bombings and police investigations leading up to Mr de Menezes’ death.
Ahead of the release of Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on Disney+, Maria de Menezes said: “In my opinion, I think everyone should watch it.”
Mrs de Menezes, who flew to London ahead of the release of the four-part series on April 30, shared the moment she found out about her son’s death, nearly 20 years ago.
“I was not expecting that moment,” she said. “It was terrible and then I started to shake.
“I sort of died then too.”
Speaking at a preview screening, writer and executive producer Jeff Pope told the audience that Mrs de Menezes said she watched the show and felt ill for three days.
He said: “I genuinely believe from being in the room that day with her, they’ve been waiting 20 years for this. I honestly think that. It’s just eaten away at them.
“We spent a lot of time with them. By necessity, it was by Zoom.
“We spent many hours talking about their lives and then we got onto the more painful stuff and they were very open and honest all the way through.”
Mr Pope added: “Lessons have already been learned but we needed that 20 years ago. His family needed that 20 years ago.
“There’s such an appetite for audiences in the UK for this type of piece. I just think we like to get angry. We don’t like being told something that we know or sense doesn’t seem right.”
Edison Alcaide, a newcomer who played Mr de Menezes, said it was an “honour” to help set the record straight about the killing.
He said: “It was a huge responsibility but also a huge honour to tell this story of this man.
“I’m so honoured to feel like I could sort of help set the record straight.”
He added: “I think it’s very clear that Jean Charles was an innocent man and I hope the audience takes home that forever and also that they learn to question everything that they are told.
“We are living in difficult times with social media and we just have to question and be so careful with social media and what we are told.”
Producer Kwadjo Dajan highlighted the power of drama to make an impact and drew comparisons with ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Netflix’s new hit Adolescence.
He said: “I think drama makes it more relatable, you can feel the emotions, you can feel what happened.
“I think it gets under your skin in a way that you can put yourself in that position.
“It’s one thing to read and learn about facts, but it’s another to actually see it and feel it and experience it and I think that’s the power of drama.”
Actor Russell Tovey, who plays a deputy assistant Met commissioner, added: “Drama has the ability to penetrate into everybody’s living room and that is what we have to keep doing.”
In 2016, the family lost a human rights challenge over the decision not to charge any police officer over the fatal shooting.
A spokesperson for the Met police said: “The circumstances around his death, which came at a time of unprecedented terrorist threat to London, have been subject to numerous public inquiries, including two separate reports by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (now the IOPC), which examined all of the evidence surrounding his death and the actions of officers in the aftermath.
“The recommendations made by the IPCC were implemented immediately following these reports, and in the 19 years since this tragic incident, we continue to proactively improve our processes and policies wherever possible to keep our communities safe.
“No officer sets out on duty intent on ending a life. Our sole purpose is the complete opposite – the protection and preservation of life – and we have taken extensive action to address the causes of this tragedy.”
