The police may have wondered if, instead of shooting him, they should have recruited him:
The lawyer had opened fire on the house in Bywater Street three times earlier in the day – at one stage missing an armed officer by only a foot.Missed by only a foot? Wow!
That almost qualifies him for ‘police marksman’ status, doesn’t it? I mean, with a little bit of training, he too could be blasting away ineffectually at cows with inadequate weapons or blowing the legs off horses….
And is anyone going to ask awkward questions about this?
Saunders, 32, died after being hit by five bullets from seven officers following the siege at his home in Chelsea, west London, on the evening of 6 May 2008.So, assuming they all shot only once, anyone curious as to where the other two bullets went?
7 comments:
..at one stage missing an armed officer by only a foot..
Eh? Saunders was using a shotgun, if he still can't get a pellet to within a foot of his target he certainly wouldn't be suited to be a police marksman. He was clearly management material.
There's something seriously wrong with our policing system when a mentally deranged man can't be brought back from the brink alive.
I read somewhere the police felt 'under pressure' because the big boss was present. You couldn't make it up.
"Missed by only a foot? Wow!
That almost qualifies him for ‘police marksman’ status, doesn’t it?"
Oh you kill me, Julia...ooops.
If you cannot hit a target the size of a man over that short distance, you shouldn't be allowed to use a gun, ballistics will be able to tell who missed him and those two should be back on the beat tomorrow, no weapons. Why the hell seven had to fire I do not know, one marksman could have done it, if of course it was necessary, which I doubt it was very much. End Ex!
I'm more surprised that that many hit him, and that so few shots were actually fired.
Using firearms "for real" is not like the movies. It takes a great deal of training and skill, and continual practice, of which police do not receive nearly enough IMO.
There is also a something called "contagious firing". (All the cops are ready to fire, one opens fire, so the rest do).
(I am assuming he was not shot by 7 snipers, but rather by 7 officers at close range with handguns.)
"He was clearly management material."
Heh!
"There's something seriously wrong with our policing system when a mentally deranged man can't be brought back from the brink alive."
I'm not sure he qualifies as 'mentally ill' - more likely drunk and drugged up, like (it seems) so many people who have violent encounters with the police.
Really, they were on a hiding to nothing - if he's shot himself like Moat, they'd stil get the blame...
"I read somewhere the police felt 'under pressure' because the big boss was present."
And that 'big boss' was no less than Ali Dizai!
"Why the hell seven had to fire I do not know..."
As anon says, there's the 'contagious fire' aspect to consider. Interestingly, one of the marksmen has now testified that he DIDN'T fire because he didn't think he had cause to do so.
"Using firearms "for real" is not like the movies. It takes a great deal of training and skill, and continual practice, of which police do not receive nearly enough IMO."
Indeed. I wonder how many people asking why the wife wasn't allowed to speak to him are basing THAT on TV hostage dramas too?
"I am assuming he was not shot by 7 snipers, but rather by 7 officers at close range with handguns."
It seems that way from the video. Lack of time to get a sniper into position?
There's nothing like making sure in these circumstances... As someone else said, it might also have been a reaction to other officers firing, after all, some of them had been there for hours, pointing guns, so perhaps it was an all too common human reaction. Having said all of the above, if some nut job pointed a shotgun at me, I think I might "let him have it," to coin a phrase, on the assumption that I would dearly like to be going home to my family in one piece, and not full of holes! I also think that in almost any other country, our barrister chap would have been pushing up the daisies long before this, as he would have been blown away as soon as he started firing out of the window. He had lots of ammunition and it could have turned out worse i.e. someone who wasn't having a bad day and wasn't raving drunk, with undoubted suicidal inclinations, could have ended up injured or worse. THEN the police would have been criticised for not drilling right between the eyes sooner. They just can't win!!
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