CCTV footage was lost, The guardian reports:
Now an Observer investigation has raised fresh questions about the death of de Menezes, whose killing is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The Observer has discovered that a key element of the investigation will be scrutiny of a delay in calling an armed team to arrest de Menezes, which meant he had already entered the station by the time the officers arrived.
That delay was crucial. If the police thought de Menezes was dangerous – perhaps a bomber – the fact that he was already in the station would have heightened tension and increased the chances of something going wrong.
Evidence of this hold-up should have been provided by CCTV footage from dozens of cameras covering the Stockwell ticket hall, escalators, platforms and train carriages.
However, police now say most of the cameras were not working. Yet pictures are available of a bombing suspect leaving another station nearby, and after the 7 July attacks tube boses could have been expected to make extra efforts to see that all their cameras were in action.
The questions are mounting. Initial claims that de Menezes was targeted because he was wearing a bulky coat, refused to stop when challenged and then vaulted the ticket barriers have all turned out to be false. He was wearing a denim jacket, used a standard Oyster electronic card to get into the station and simply walked towards the platform unchallenged.
It has also been suggested that officers did not identify themselves properly before shooting de Menezes seven times in the head.
In the absence of CCTV footage the inquiry will have to rely on the testimony of eyewitnesses, though many of those who claim to have seen the incident have provided contradictory accounts of what happened.
Figures. Strangely enough, in an earlier Guardian article, it was reported that “Nick Hardwick, the chairman of the IPCC, told the Guardian he had all the footage in his possession and it was “very, very helpful” to the inquiry“. Was Hardwick referring to the CCTV footage of the killing of Menezes and if so, what happened to it? If this footage existed on July 30th but not now, when did it disappear? Who disappeared it?