The day before the shooting, four attempted bomb attacks were carried out at three locations on the Underground and on a bus in Bethnal Green. A fifth unexploded device was later discovered in some bushes just north of White City and Shepherd's Bush. As the perpetrators had not died in the failed suicide bombing, a large-scale police investigation began immediately, with the aim of tracking them down. A written address reportedly had been identified from materials found inside the unexploded bags used by the bombers, located within a three-storey block of flats (containing 9 separate flats) in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill.
At around 10:00 a.m., officers observing the address saw a man, Menezes, emerge from the communal entrance of the block. The officers were watching three men who they claimed were Somali or Ethiopian in appearance. Menezes, an electrician, lived in one of the flats with two cousins, and had just received a call to fix a broken fire alarm in Kilburn.