Police officer describes mistaken ID death

LONDON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A London police officer involved in the killing of an unarmed Brazilian immigrant mistaken for a terrorist broke down Friday while describing the shooting.

Testifying at the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menzes, the officer was identified only as C12. De Menzes' mother was in the courtroom as the officer began sobbing, The Sun reported.

"I am responsible for the death of an innocent man," he said. "It is something I have got to live with for the rest of my life."

De Menzes was gunned down on a train at the Stockwell underground station in South London in 2005. The shooting occurred after the July 7 London transport bombings, which killed scores of people, and attempted bombings two weeks later that failed because the explosives failed to detonate.

C12 said he was shocked and horrified the next day to learn what he had done. He said he and his colleagues thought de Menzes was Hussain Osman, one of the July 21 bombers.

"Everything I trained for -- threat assessment, seeing threats, perceiving threats, acting on threats -- proved wrong," he said.