Suspect: Are Charlie 2 and Charlie 12 Based on Real Police Officers?

Hulu’s ‘Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes’ is a four-part series that recounts the events surrounding the tragic shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. While the show focuses heavily on the before and after, it is the actual shooting that stands out as the most visceral and violent image in the entire series. In it, we see a group of police officers following Jean Charles, but the fatal shots are carried out by two officers, identified only as Charlie 2 and Charlie 12. Their real identities have remained hidden from the public, but interestingly, one of them has come out to speak about the horrible events of that day.

C2 and C12 are Real Officers Who Shot Jean Charles de Menezes

One of the things that makes ‘Suspect’ such an intense and impactful watch is that it relies heavily on facts and official accounts to tell the story. While dramatic licence is taken in some places, the show remains pretty loyal to reality, especially when portraying the people involved. Officers Charlie 2 and Charlie 12 are also borrowed from real life, and their names remain undisclosed to the public even now. Apart from appearing for the hearing, which ended with neither of them getting charged for Jean Charles’ killing, C2 and C12 have remained out of the limelight. However, in 2024, C12 gave his first public interview in the Channel 4 documentary, ‘Shoot to Kill: Terror on the Tube.’ Despite revealing his face, the documentary kept his name a secret, referring to him only as C12.

C12 mentioned that he is now retired after forty years of service in the Metropolitan police. During the inquest, it was revealed that he and C2 had chosen to step down from their front-line duties and adopted the roles that required them to be desk-bound. It remains unclear whether they stayed in those roles for the rest of their service or if they eventually returned to active duty. In any case, C12 said that a lot of what happened that day had to do with the fact that he and his team were under immense pressure to prevent another terrorist attack, so the sole thing on their mind was to stop the terrorist.

He revealed that he was given a few seconds to look at the grainy picture they were provided to identify the suspect. That didn’t help much, but the officers relied on the accounts of another officer who had been following the suspect and allegedly positively identified Jean Charles de Menezes as the one they needed to apprehend. One of the major orders that C12 remembers hearing is to stop the suspect from boarding the train at all costs. However, by the time his team arrived, Jean Charles was already on the train. When another officer stopped the doors from closing and pointed at Jean Charles, C2 and C12 jumped into action.

C12 Claims Jean Charles Exhibited Suspicious Behaviour

When C12 embarked on the mission that day, he was under the impression that he and his team had been authorised to shoot to kill and neutralise the terrorist at any cost. He also believed that the team leading them to the terrorist had positively identified the suspect, so his only job was to stop the guy from detonating another bomb. This is why, as soon as his fellow officer pointed a finger at Jean Charles, C12 did what he thought was necessary. He claims that Jean Charles stood up suspiciously, which is when he identified himself as an armed police officer. He alleges that the man did not stop even then, which led C12 to believe that he was, in fact, the terrorist. He claims that Jean Charles’ forward momentum led another officer to pin him down, which is when he and C2 riddled the man with bullets.

C12 said that he thought that Jean Charles would pull the pin or detonate the bomb, and he and his entire team would die in the explosion. The fear for his life led him to accept the possibility of shooting the suspect, and once he got the opportunity, he did not step back. C2 also seems to have been working along the same thought process, which led both officers to shoot down Jean Charles. The fallout of the firing was such that the officers were covered in blood, brain tissue, and bone splinters. They were told to stay put for two hours so that evidence could be retrieved from them. Meanwhile, the only thought in C12’s mind was that he and his team had prevented a bomb from going off. Or at least, that’s what they thought in the moment.

Notably, before this, C12 had never killed or even fired a weapon at any suspect. This is why he claims that the whole thought of shooting to kill was not taken lightly. Even though his team had to think on their feet, none of them would have shot a bullet if a different avenue had presented itself. At the official inquest, the coroner decided to do away with the unlawful killing part, which eventually ended with none of the Met officers being held accountable for Jean Charles’ death. Still, the jury did not hesitate to answer the coroner’s questions in a way that suggests they closely looked at C12 and C2’s claims of what happened that day and disagreed with them, mainly because the testimonies of the seventeen passengers on that train differed significantly. An open verdict was given in the case. So, even though no officer was prosecuted, the jury clarified that they were not buying their account.

C12 Regrets Killing Jean Charles, But Doesn’t Want to Face His Family

The discovery that Jean Charles de Menezes was an innocent man hit C12 and C2 very hard. In the Channel 4 documentary, C12 regretted the matter, calling Jean Charles’ family the real victims of the ordeal. He revealed that following the shooting, especially after the revelation of the victim’s innocence, he felt so guilty that he suffered from headaches that would render him unable to function. The impact of his unstable psychological and physical state started to show, such that his daughter, too, began to notice it as she would wake up in the middle of the night.

When it was revealed that neither he nor C2 would be taken to court for their misconduct, he felt a surge of relief. Being charged with the offence would have led to his name becoming public, which would have been an entirely different beast to control. It would also have left him and C2 to confront the real magnitude of their actions, which would have taken another toll on their psyche. Similarly, C12 confessed that meeting Jean Charles’ family would be unbearable and would definitely break him. By keeping a distance from them, he has managed to distance himself from the events of that day, and it would be impossible for him to return to the way he was after meeting them. It seems that C2 has similar emotions about the case, so he has chosen to keep his anonymity and stay out of the limelight entirely.