Regrets, but No Apology, in London Subway Shooting

By ELAINE SCIOLINO - New York Times: "The British police on Sunday defended the killing of an innocent man on a subway train and a shoot-to-kill policy as Britain's political establishment rallied around the policies of Prime Minister Tony Blair in his antiterror campaign.

Sir Ian Blair, the London police commissioner, stopped short of an outright apology as he expressed "deepest regrets" and accepted "full responsibility" for the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician who died on Friday after he was shot five times in the head by the local police at the Stockwell subway station in south London.

The commissioner also raised the possibility that more potential suspects could be killed in the mass transit system, as armed officers are forced to make split-second decisions on whether a suspicious person who does not heed police warnings represents an immediate lethal threat and should be shot in the head.

Portraying the working environment of his police officers as "terrifying," he said that "there is no point shooting at somebody's chest, because that is where the bomb is likely to be."

Lord Stevens, Sir Ian's predecessor as the London police commissioner, wrote in an opinion piece in Sunday's News of the World that he had sent teams for training to Israel and other countries hit by suicide bombers. There, he said, he had learned that, "There is only one sure way to stop a suicide bomber determined to fulfill his mission: destroy his brain instantly, utterly."

Family members of the victim struggled to make sense of why Mr. Menezes was killed. "Their explanation is that they had to kill someone to show the population that they are making the country safe," Alex Alves Pereira, a cousin who is acting as the family spokesman, told BBC television. "I ask all the people to ask the Metropolitan Police and Tony Blair, 'What kind of job are they doing?' "

About three dozen people, apparently Brazilians, demonstrated in front of Scotland Yard in central London, holding a banner that read, "Sorry is not enough."

Hélène Fouquet contributed reporting for this article."