British hockey manager to miss Rio Games over shooting mistake

LONDON: Great Britain men’s hockey team manager will not travel to Brazil for the Rio Olympics because of his “peripheral role” when police shot dead a Brazilian

LONDON: Great Britain men’s hockey team manager will not travel to Brazil for the Rio Olympics because of his “peripheral role” when police shot dead a Brazilian national in London, officials announced Sunday.

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Andy Halliday was formerly a specialist firearms officer in London’s Metropolitan Police and in that capacity had what, a joint statement issued by the British Olympic Association and Great Britain Hockey, said was a “peripheral role” when officers shot dead Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in a London Underground station in July 2005 in the mistaken belief he was a suicide bomber.

The incident took place amid heightened security concerns following deadly terror attacks on public transport in London earlier that month.

De Menezes’s death remains a sensitive issue and it has now been decided that Halliday, who has been Britain’s team manager since 2010 after he retired from the force, should not travel to Brazil.

“Whilst I am obviously disappointed not to be going to the Olympic Games, I have known of this decision since last November and respect the process that has been followed and the decision itself,” Halliday said in a statement.

De Menezes was shot multiple times by police at Stockwell station in south London on July 22, 2005 after being mistakenly identified as one of the suspects from a series of failed suicide bombing attempts the previous day.