So, Inspector Gadget….

…is it still ‘time for taser in London’?

One witness, who did not want to be named, said the man was wearing an outfit which looked like Kiefer Sutherland's character Doc in the Young Guns movie, in which he wears a trench coat and cowboy hat.

"He was just sitting on the train singing away and didn't look like he would harm a fly, but obviously someone had seen a toy gun in his waistband and reported it." Another witness, Harold Gerber, 47, said: "He was quietly singing to himself and wearing a cowboy hat and a long trench coat. I didn't think he was doing anything wrong."

Well, indeed! I suppose it depends on what he was singing…

A spokesman for the British Transport Police said: "We were called to Norwood Junction on November 15 after a report of a man with a firearm.

"Armed officers from the Met Tasered the man because they thought he had a gun."

Oh. Right. Well, that’s OK, actually. They don’t need to know he has a gun, they only need to think they – or the public - are at risk.

And the guy is clearly Radio Rental:

The man was later detained under the Mental Health Act and remains in hospital.

However, it transpires that the ‘Evening Standard’ doesn’t tell the full story.

A Tweet by the ‘Guardian’ crime correspondent states the man was tasered multiple times. And the local paper has this:

The train was held at the platform and evacuated before the man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting police and possession of an imitation firearm.

Mr Gerber said: “I saw them coming from another carriage. The guy had his gun pointed right at me and was shouting to put my hands on my head. I was terrified. I haven’t been able to sleep since. They could have come on in plain clothes and scoped it out. If he had been carrying a real gun it could have been carnage on a full train like that.”

I’d have thought if you had reports of a potentially mentally deranged suspect, a quieter approach would have been better for all concerned.

This is, after all, before the incident in Kingsbury...

Left shaken by the incident Mr Gerber, who was travelling to Charing Cross to attend a job interview, visited South Norwood Police station to complain later that day but was told to leave his number and be contacted.

He said; “I think it is terrible. I just want a form to put down my complaint but they have fobbed me off every time.”

What a shocker…

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “Armed officers responded to a call from a member of rail staff at Norwood Junction station to reports of a man on the platform waving what appeared to be a pistol around and shouting.

When police arrived the man had boarded a train which had been held at the station.
Officers boarded the train and made their way through the carriages to the male suspect who had his hands in his pockets.

The suspect moved forward towards the officers whilst shouting and refused to remove his hands from his pockets.

Attempts by the officers to physically restrain him failed so they deployed Taser.

The man was Tasered a number of times but this seemed to have no effect.

Well, well, well…

It seems that taser isn’t the ‘magic bullet’ that some people clearly think it is, or are willing to use a horrific situation to see rolled out to all officers.

So, what now?