Armed and Deadly: Police UK (2018): Season 1, Episode 2 - Episode #1.2 - full transcript

- Armed police!

Hands in the air!

Hands in the air!

- Police stay where you are!

- Britain's armed police

are amongst the toughest and the world.

- Put it down!

- These men and
women face untold dangers.

- Don't go forward, he can shoot.

- And everyday could

be the day they pull the trigger.



They rarely talk about
the realities of the job.

- Here get along!

- Or the
pressures of taking a life.

But now, we've brought them
together for the first time.

To speak openly.

- I carried on shooting until
I couldn't see him anymore.

- In this series,

they break their covenant of silence.

- You acknowledge fear, you embrace fear.

- And reveal
what it's really like

to be an armed police officer.

- You don't get up in the morning

thinking I'm gonna go and shoot somebody.

- Police!



- We get up in the morning wanting

to come home and bath the kids.

- Armed police stand still!

- Stay where you are!

- These officers come

face to face with marauding attackers.

- Hand up hands up!

- It's the most dangerous
thing that you're

confronted with as an
armed police officer.

- Lie in wait for
organized criminal gangs.

- Crime is changing, it's evolving.

- And save the
lives of innocent hostages.

- Sometimes you can't
avoid using deadly force.

- That shot may have to be fired

and, indeed, that shot may be lethal.

- Police firearms officers

are trained to deal
with any armed incident.

- Room clear!

- These special men and women

can use potentially lethal force

to tackle armed criminality
and keep the peace.

- Armed police stand still.

- And as well as weapons,

they're equipped with a range of

skills essential for the job.

- To be an armed police officer,

you've gotta have a
certain type of character.

You've gotta be resilient, you've

gotta be able to make decisions quickly.

- Well as a firearms
officer you have to be calm.

You have to be confident and
you have to be prepared to deal

with the most dangerous
criminals that are out there.

- You've gotta be able to talk to people.

That's the best weapon that
a police officer's got.

Is his mouth and his
ability to talk to people.

- Tonight, we
find out how communication

is the weapon of choice when
dealing with an armed siege.

- The word siege has been
used throughout history.

But now, really we're
talking about an individual,

or a group of individuals,
within a building or a premises.

- We explore the first

shooting by specialist armed officers.

The danger posed by airplane hijacks

and tell the story of
the UK's longest siege.

- I've been in siege situations

where we waited days,
weeks and even months

before any type of police
action would take place.

- We learn about
the officers' range of tactics

and how their aim in every armed siege

is to keep the subjects alive.

- Listen Mark,
I don't want you to die

and you're not going to die today.

- In every
armed police operation,

there's a tactical
advisor who is responsible

for keeping the police,
and the public, safe.

In London, throughout the
early years of this century,

the responsibility often
fell on Commander Bob Quick.

- I was the rank of
Commander and I had overall

responsibility for crime across
the 32 boroughs of London.

- When sieges develop,
it's Bob who is called in

to balance the use of force
with the use of patience.

And his biggest test
came in Christmas 2002.

- Throw your
weapon from the window.

- Sometimes you can't
avoid using deadly force

against a determined and deadly criminal.

- Eli you must come out.

- He made it very clear to us that

he wouldn't ever be taken alive.

- It was December the
26th 2002, Boxing Day.

I was at home with my family

celebrating the Christmas holiday.

At that time I had responsibility
for pursuing criminals who

we knew to have access to
firearms or other deadly weapons.

- Gun law on the streets

of Britain this morning.

Armed police moved in after shots

were fired from a flat in East London.

- The shooter was Eli Hall.

A Jamaican gangster who was wanted

for the attempted murder
of a police officer.

Within minutes of first contact,
the area was on lockdown.

Every corner of Eli's building was

surrounded by containment officers.

And Bob took charge from
the central command post.

- I was asked to go to Hackney
and take charge of the siege.

Eli Hall was erratic, volatile,
he was very aggressive.

He continued to repeat his claims that he

would shoot any police
officer that came near him.

- Eli you must come out now.

Throw your weapon from the window.

- He had a pistol.

There was some suspicion he may

have a second firearm in the building

and he was making claims that

he had a bathtub full of ammunition.

I decided that the strategy of containment

and negotiation was the right one.

- In an attempt
to win the suspect's trust,

police agreed for food and
drink parcels to be delivered.

But, despite their goodwill,

Eli Hall wasn't prepared to give up.

- What we learned was that
actually he had barricaded

the doors and some of the
windows inside the flat.

So that, if the decision was
taken to send armed officers

into the building, they would
be rendered very vulnerable.

No one's life was at risk at that point

but what we didn't
realize was that actually

there was another man in the building.

The stakes were much higher, there

was a hostage in the building.

Police have a duty to
protect and preserve life

so we hardened our line with him.

Now was the time to make life
very uncomfortable for him.

He'd made it very clear to us

that he wouldn't ever be taken alive.

- Armed police.

- Get down.

- When armed police
deal with any situation,

their first role is to preserve life.

- Room clear!

- So when they learn

an armed man is holding a hostage,

they face the difficult decision
on whether or not to go in.

- When it gets to that stage
when entry has to be made,

that is really last case scenario.

It's the most dangerous thing that you're

confronted with as an
armed police officer.

Bar none.

- Over the years there's been an array

of different sorts of
individuals that we've faced.

- When you execute the operation,

you do it at a time where the risk

of any use of arms or
weapons is minimized.

- As far as we can tell,

police have still not
entered the property.

They say, "Why should they risk

"their officers at this stage?"

- We're into our eighth
day now and you realize

that you're really stressed
about the whole thing.

- Do you think
the army should go in?

- Yeah.

That's the reinforcement
I'm talking about.

- Bob Quick was
facing public pressure.

As armed and dangerous Eli Hall

was holed up in a flat in Hackney.

He was refusing to leave and had

taken another man as hostage.

- We were under a lot of
pressure from the media

who were saying well why don't the police

just storm this building
and end this thing?

I was very concerned when we

learned there was a hostage in there.

Hall wasn't making any demands
around the hostage but,

the fact that he was so heavily armed

and his history as a
very violent individual,

obviously meant that the
hostage was at some risk.

But, as it happened I think
on day 11 of the siege,

much to my relief and
I'm sure the hostage's,

he took the opportunity
to break out of the back

of the building while Hall was asleep.

Now, we had the gunman on his own

with no innocent party in the building.

Now was the time to make life
very uncomfortable for him.

We batoned round some windows.

Made it cold.

We sprayed water into the
building to make it damp.

We were now trying to freeze
him out, starve him out,

force him out in whatever way we could.

I think he realized he couldn't stay

there indefinitely in those conditions.

But, he resisted all attempts at reason.

We even got his father out of
prison and we asked the father

whether he would be prepared
to talk to him and try and

persuade him to lay down his

firearms and leave the building.

The father, in the end,
wasn't very coopoerative

and actually ended up
shouting down the phone,

"Don't do what the police say,

"don't let them take you alive."

- On day 15, the
standoff suddenly escalated.

- Eli Hall fired again at police.

I decided to issue instructions

to officers that they could return fire.

- One officer returned
fire, very accurately,

and it struck Eli Hall in the face.

It was a really serious wound

so we were trying to get some signal

from him that he was
prepared to surrender.

He'd made it very clear to us that

he wouldn't ever be taken alive.

Soon after, we saw some smoke
emerge from the building.

- Eli you must come out now.

The smoke can make you unconscious,

you won't know what's going on.

You must come out now while you still can.

- Within minutes,
flames leap from the property.

Eli Hall has apparently
set the flat ablaze.

- Come out safely.

- We had an inkling he had
some petrol in the building

and, sure enough, a fire quickly took hold

and, during that stage, gunfire was heard.

It was over.

Hall's body was found in the hallway.

Burnt almost beyond recognition.

- A post mortem
revealed Eli had turned

the gun on himself rather
than surrender to police.

- Any reasonable onlooker would say

the police did everything in their power

to try and persuade him to give up.

You want the operation to end peacefully

and, of course, the vast
majority of them do.

So in a siege, the very few occasions that

police officers ever have
to discharge their firearms,

is testimony to their training,
their skill, their bravery

and the mindset that we
have in British policing.

- The very first day
of my firearms course,

remember the instructor saying that,

"You've gotta understand that you might,

"at some stage, have to
take someone's life."

- I don't believe any job that I went on,

I had in the back of my mind
that I would use that weapon.

The inevitability of it was that

the circumstances might dictate you would.

- There have been people who,

when they've been asked that question,

they've sort of thought
well maybe it's not for me.

- To open fire and to take someone's life

may be your duty in certain circumstances.

And therefore, it's not
only okay to do that,

it's your responsibility to understand

that's what you might have to do.

- You shoot someone because you believe,

at that moment in time,
at that split second

that you pull the trigger, that they

are armed and dangerous and
present an immediate threat.

- It's the very last resort

part of your job but
it is part of your job.

- Last year,
officers carried out

more than 16,000 armed operations.

And many involved armed
subjects who refused

to put down their weapons
or give themselves up.

These siege situations test our
armed officers to the limit.

But the first tactic they
turn to is always negotiation.

- If you and I work together,

we'll get you out of there
safely in no time at all.

- Police marksmen have been

surrounding a flat for
the last four hours.

The owner, wealthy
barrister Mark Saunders,

has been firing his shotgun
out of the kitchen window.

Now, specialist negotiators
are trying to calm him down.

While armed officers stand poised.

Ready to use lethal force.

- Listen Mark,
I don't want you to die

and you're not going to die today.

You're not going to die today Mark.

No, no, no nobody's putting any

psychological pressure on you Mark.

You're an intelligent bloke.

- Officers
have learned that Saunders

is drunk and behaving erratically.

So more than 15 armed officers

are positioned around the flat.

Ready to fire if he becomes a threat.

- Mark it's Sonya!

I can't quite hear what you're saying,

come and pick up the phone and talk to me.

Mark!

- But their hopes
are pinned on negotiations

to encourage Mark to drop his weapon.

- Mark can you hear me?

- Siege situations that I've been involved

with over the years, put a great

deal of emphasis on using negotiation

to resolve

the situation but, of course,

sitting behind that,
the police need to have

a capability to deal
with a sudden, unexpected

action on behalf of the suspect.

- No, no Mark you're
not going to do that.

I don't want you to come
out and fire one barrel

and I don't want you to
take a barrel in the face.

I don't know, I can't see you.

But I don't want you to pick up the gun

and I don't want you
to do anything with it.

Listen Mark, nobody
here means you any harm.

Nobody here wants you to come to any harm.

- In most cases, it's
not always quite clear

that this person's suffering
mental health issues.

By the same token, if a
person has got a weapon,

they're still a threat.

You've got to deal with it as a threat

because, if you relax
for a minute and think,

well this is a person
with mental problems,

you'd be the next victim of that person.

Or your colleague could
be the next victim.

- I'm really
really worried about you.

You sound really upset Mark.

- What are you doing Mark?

What are you doing Mark?

Mark what are you doing?

- When people are desperate,

that's when they are unpredictable.

And that, it's almost
like a cornered animal.

You know, they wanna get away.

It's the fight or flight.

If they've got a weapon they'll use it.

They may not mean to use it

but they're more likely to use it.

- Mark if you can
hear me, I can hear you.

Mark you need to pick the phone up.

You need to pick the phone
up and tell me you're okay.

So I can tell Libby that you're okay

and your friends that are
here that you're okay.

Libby's beside herself.

I need to let her know
that your actually--

Mark pick up the phone
and talk to me Mark.

Mark!

Mark pick up the phone, talk to me.

I heard the shots, I'm really worried now.

- Mark Saunders
was shot around 10 times.

After lowering his shotgun
towards police officers.

He died from his injuries
shortly afterwards.

An inquest heard he had
been drinking heavily

but there was no other explanation

as to why the incident occurred.

- There are some circumstances in which

you can subsequently have
some feelings for people.

Particularly those people
who've got involved in incidents

as a result of health
breakdowns, mental health issues.

We're not immune to realizing
that people get into

desperate circumstances because
of desperate situations.

But at that particular time, it makes them

no less dangerous to the public or us.

- I remember being at an
incident three, four days before

Christmas where a guy had
a firearm inside a premises

and all we wanted to do was
take that firearm away from him

and he ended up shooting
himself in front of me.

You know, for me to go home
after that was very difficult

because that individual
wasn't gonna have that luxury

and, no matter what dark place he was in,

he was still a human and you know,

the holidays were still there for us all.

So yeah, it does affect you.

- I think in the police, we always

talk about empathy rather than sympathy

and the empathy side of things is

the thing that gets to you sometimes.

You sort of go home and
you just think about it.

You think Jesus,

what I've just seen, I
don't ever wanna see again.

- Yes I have gone home
and I've shed a tear.

But I think that's because we are human

and I think what you need
to reflect on sometimes

is that actually, that police
officer carrying that firearm

is the most highly skilled
officer probably in the world.

But they're also still a human being.

- If you make any
attempt to endanger life

we will shoot to stop you.

- It's the most dangerous thing that

you're confronted with as
an armed police officer.

- It's a nightmare scenario if

you have to assault an aircraft.

It was one of those
moments where you think,

this has just got real.

- Every UK police force

has a team of armed
officers who patrol daily

and handle over 16,000
operations each year.

And there's one type which tests

their skills and bravery to the limit.

The armed siege.

- Take your hands where I can see them!

Come towards me!

- The word siege has been
used throughout history

and it's changed in context
throughout the years

but now, really we're
talking about an individual

or a group of individuals,
within a building or a premises.

- Your house is completely

surrounded by police officers okay?

So I want you to come
to the front door with

your arms up and you will come to no harm.

- This incident
in South Yorkshire

saw police attempt to arrest a subject

who is refusing to leave an address.

- If you make
any attempt to endanger

life we will shoot to stop you.

- It's the most dangerous thing that

you're confronted with as
an armed police officer.

Bar none because there
are unknown variables

in entering a building to
safeguard someone's safety

that put the risk off of the scale.

- It's your last chance
to come to the door now!

If you don't come to the door,

we're going to force
entry into your property.

- The tactics
dictate that armed officers will

contain the building where
the suspect is believed to be.

Covering exits and evacuating the public.

It can then be a waiting game.

With negotiations as the
preferred weapon of choice.

- Do what you
said and come to the door

with your hands where we can see them

and you will come to no harm!

- You're trying to defuse a situation,

you're trying to negotiate with somebody

with what negotiation
skills that you've got.

- If you don't want to talk to me

turn the lights on and off in the bedroom

so I know that you're all right.

- I've been in siege situations where

we waited days, weeks
and even months before

any type of police
action would take place.

- This stand off
lasts more than 30 minutes.

- Everything that you do is actually

directed towards a peaceful resolution.

Safeguarding the police,
safeguarding the public

and obviously even
safeguarding the subject.

- Finally, the
siege is brought to an end

and the man is lead away for questioning.

Extracting a potentially dangerous

man from a house is one thing.

But armed police have to be
prepared for much bigger tasks.

Such as an airplane taken over

by an army of armed hijackers.

- My heart stopped for a minute.

It was one of those moments
where you think, shit.

I thought he was dead.

- Two AM and Afghan
terrorists have taken over

a plane and forced it to
land at Stansted airport.

Intelligence suggests
they're heavily armed

and hell bent on forcing entry to the UK.

Mick was a specialist armed
officer with Essex police.

- We got the plane completely surrounded.

There's riflemen on both sides,

in front and behind.

- As the negotiations begin,

no one knows if the hijackers
are open to dialogue

or ready to take innocent
lives to get their way.

The world holds it's breath.

- It's a case of what's their intention?

How long's it gonna go on for?

And I'm looking at it thinking
how long it's gonna last for.

How long you gonna be there for?

These things do have a habit
of escalating very quickly.

So yeah your awareness of everything

that's going on is heightened.

It was just a case of

what's gonna happen next?

- What did happen
next surprised everyone.

Four cabin crew made a brave
escape via the cockpit windows.

A short time later, the
hijackers send a warning

to anyone else thinking
of making an escape bid.

- Two people appeared at
the top of the stairs.

One of them was one of the cabin crew

and the other one was
one of the hostage takers

and he had a weapon.

At that point, the hostage taker

pushed the hostage down the stairs.

It was just like a sack.

Everything at that point slowed down.

He just slumped, no movement.

My heart stopped for a minute.

It was one of those
moments where you think,

shit, this has just got real.

I thought he was dead.

- If the hostage takers

have killed, then the stakes are raised.

And SAS units nearby will storm the plane.

Steve Smith is part of the Met team

ready to assist a full blown assault.

- It's a nightmare scenario
if you have to assault

or go on board an aircraft that

where there's hostile people.

The terrorists have got hand grenades,

they might've booby trapped the plane.

They've got handguns, they
may fire indiscriminately

into the passengers or try and engage

the people assaulting the plane.

All the confusion and
darkness on the aircraft.

You will have casualties amongst

the passengers, it's inevitable.

And so it is a last resort.

Clearly it's a last resort.

And every other means must've been tried

and tested before it will be undertaken.

- With the
situation on a knife edge,

it's up to Mick to find out
if the hostage is alive.

I'm staring through the night vision

just trying to will the
bloke on the floor to move.

Almost wanting to shout at him to move

but you can't, you can't
give out your position.

I've got one of them in the back saying,

"Mick what the fuck's going on?

"Is he alive, is he moving?"

It seemed like an eternity.

And I just see, briefly,
he lifted his leg.

And I can remember saying,

"He's alive, he's definitely alive."

- Mick is
ordered to rescue the man

and get him safely back to the hangar.

- Going through my mind is, has

this guy been thrown from
the back of the plane?

Is he booby trapped?

It was scary.

Being totally honest.

But fear is a good
thing, keeps you on edge.

Keeps you on your toes.

So, moved the vehicle forward

and pulled it across the back of the plane

with my side open to danger

so that the rest of the team
could exit the vehicle safe

side and deal with the casualty
that was on the ground.

My MP5 had been resting
between my legs in a foot well.

I brought that up to bear,

ready to take on anyone that came to

the back of the plane with a weapon.

The team grabbed the casualty
and bundled him into the

back of our vehicle and, as
soon as that back door shut,

my foot was on the accelerator
and we were out of there.

- With the hostage surviving,

negotiators could keep the talks going.

Just hours later, the
hijackers opt for arrest

rather than a violent
conclusion to the operation.

They were jailed before
seeking asylum in the UK.

- A successful mission is one where,

although we've drawn our weapons,
we don't have to use them.

It does affect you.

You do reflect on the operations

that you've been involved in.

Things you see, things you get involved in

but that's the same with
all aspects of police work.

- When armed
officers attend a siege,

they have to draw on every
element of their training

to reach a peaceful conclusion.

But there are some attributes that

these officers seem to be born with.

- To be an armed police officer

you've gotta have a
certain type of character.

You've gotta be resilient, you've gotta

be able to make decisions quickly.

- Well, as a firearms
officer, you have to be calm,

you have to be confident and
you have to be prepared to

deal with the most dangerous
criminals that are out there.

- You've got to be a team player.

It's all based on team.

You'll never go into a
firearms situation alone.

- Gotta be able to talk to people.

That's the best weapon
that a police officer's got

is his mouth and his
ability to talk to people.

- Tony Long has
seen more than his fair share

of sieges, spending 25
years as an armed officer.

- I joined on the assumption that everyone

joined for the same reason
as me and that's that they

wanted to get in car
chases and chase bad guys

over rooftops at three
o' clock in the morning.

Obviously it wasn't an
aspiration to shoot anybody,

it wasn't something that

I particularly wanted to do.

- Indeed, back in 1985, no

specialist officer had pulled the trigger.

But that was about to change.

- We knew that he was holding
a little girl hostage.

He was gonna just try
and take us by surprise

and with a knife, fight his
way down the stairs and escape.

He was shouting, "You've done it now,

"you've done it now, she's
died, she died, she died."

- It's Christmas Day 1985.

Poynter Court in Northolt
is about to have the

festivities interrupted
in the most violent way.

- Fuck you man
splitting round the back.

Youve fucking blown it you lot.

- We knew that a guy, I
don't think we even knew

what his name was at that
time, had murdered a woman

and was holding a little girl hostage.

He'd stabbed her 14 times
and thrown her body out

onto the balcony just
as the police arrived.

The situation was contained
and negotiators arrived,

starting talking to Errol
Walker and they started to

encourage Errol Walker to
come out on the balcony.

And he got braver and braver and braver.

Sometimes he'd come out on his own,

leaving the child in the flat.

Sometimes he'd come out
and he'd sit the child

with her legs hanging over the balcony

and start talking crap to the crowd.

- Negotiators
experimented with tactics.

Using Walker's wife to
try and talk him out.

- Come on, stick
your fucking hands up.

- Negotiators had sent

Errol Walker's wife forward to talk to him

and he'd actually jumped out the window,

with the knife in his hand

and actually nearly succeeded in

dragging her back into the flat.

Now all of this is totally contrary

to standard operating
procedures around sieges.

You know, we want that suspect contained.

What the hell the negotiators
were even thinking of.

Don't get me wrong, I can quite see why

they would want a negotiated settlement

but they weren't getting
a negotiated settlement.

Errol Walker was as mad as a box of frogs.

And he was loving it.

They were giving him everything he wanted.

He wasn't about to surrender anytime soon.

Why would he?

- With one
murder already committed

and a child in immediate danger,

Tony's firearms unit take
position to secure the balcony.

- There's fucking masked
men round the back.

You've fucking blown it you lot.

- Errol Walker wasn't happy
about armed police being there.

He was complaining about them,
he wanted them withdrawn.

He wanted us to go.

At one point the negotiators approached

the on scene commander and
actually asked that we should

be seen to pack all our kit
up in our bags and leave

because Errol Walker had promised

that if that happened he'd come out.

Really?

So the negotiator said, "We
don't want them on site."

So we're being forced into hiding.

- Tony is tucked
into a communal stairwell

with the rest of his team in a flat

on the opposite end of the balcony.

Neither group have line
of sight on Walker.

So a sniper, positioned 50 meters away,

has the task of letting
cops know what's going on.

- He took a kitchen knife and cut

the poor little girl's
arm down to the bone.

He'd hung the child out the back window

by her ankles, three stories up.

So that her blood dripped
down on the fire crew

that were waiting to catch
her if he dropped her.

God only knows

how traumatized she was
by watching her mother

brutally murdered, her mother was

stabbed 14 times by Errol
Walker, in front of her.

And then to be held hostage by him

and be brutalized in the way that she was.

No.

- With the siege
well into its second day,

there is still no sign that
Walker is ready to give up.

In fact, he is spiraling out of control.

- On one occasion he came to the door

and he acted in a way that
he hadn't acted before.

He had a knife in his
hand, he was at a crouch,

he was looking left, he was looking right

and when he'd been out on the
balcony on a previous visit,

he'd seen an abandoned police riot shield

and obviously thought, well that'll

make an additional defense
for his barricades.

And the guys on the other side went,

"Fuck he's going for it."

So they went go.

By the time they actually
got out the door,

Errol Walker was three quarters of the way

back to the flat door
with this riot shield.

He threw the riot shield
in the face of the lead guy

and managed to get in the door
and slam it in their face.

And on the other side of the door,

he shouted, "You've done it now,

"you've done it now she
dies, she dies, she dies."

I could see the glint of the knife up here

and he's screaming, "She
dies, she dies, she dies."

And I had made the decision I
was gonna have to shoot him.

- Armed police stand still!

- It's Boxing Day 1985

and Tony Long is among officers facing

an armed siege in Northolt,
north west London.

Erratic knife man Errol
Walker has murdered

one woman and taken a four
year old girl hostage.

- You've fucking blown it you lot.

- A failed attempt
to get between the armed man

and his victim has led
to a dramatic stand off.

- He threw the riot shield
in the face of the lead guy

and managed to get in the door
and slam it in their face.

The team leader who was at the door,

could hear Errol Walker saying,

"You've done it now, she's gonna die."

So he made the very bold decision

to say, "Right fuck it
we're gonna go for it."

- Tony is the first officer,

seen here, going through the window.

Our stun grenades at the
time were very very powerful

and they'd blown out all
the glass in the windows

in the property and they'd
blown all the light bulbs.

So, when I got in, there was a bit

of light coming through
a crack in the curtain

and I could see Errol
Walker down on the settee,

he'd got the little girl and he

was holding her across him like a shield

and I could see the glint
of the knife up here

and he's screaming, "She
dies, she dies, she dies."

And I made the decision I
was gonna have to shoot him.

Exactly as I fired, he stabbed

this knife right down to the hilt

into her neck

and

I fired two shots at his shoulder

and, what he did is he,

he sort of winced and turned and he

exposed his temple to the
shaft of light coming through

and I decided that he was still

a threat and I needed to fire.

My round actually struck
the tip of his shoulder

and sort of went into his brain

and his eyes rolled up into his head

and I thought

that's it now mate, you've done

it now, you've killed a bloke.

She was just completely limp.

I thought she was dead

and I also thought that
there was a possibility

that one of my rounds might have hit her

and it might've been me that killed her.

So I applied a first aid
dressing to her neck.

I scooped her up and I ran for
the front door of this flat

and then took her down the stairs

handed her over to the ambulance

and they took her away.

- Fucking leave me.

Leave me!

- I was in such a rush to
get her out of the house

that I still had the gun in my hand.

So there I was, standing amongst
this quite volatile crowd

that are trying to get a
view of the little girl,

they're trying to you know

and I've still got a gun in my hand

and

so I sort of snuck it back in my pocket

and part of me wanted
to go back to the room

and see what damage I'd caused I suppose

for want of a better word.

But part of me also thought

you've been advised not
to do that in training,

you've been advised to get away from

the scene as soon as possible,
you've achieved that.

Don't go back to the scene.

So I went back to our control room

which was a flat that we'd taken over

and I went through.

The bacon was there, the bread was there

so I just thought right, I'll start

making bacon sarnies for everyone.

So that's what I did.

I just felt that I had to do something.

It was a melting pot of emotions really

and it wasn't until
about 20 minutes later,

when the lads came in,

somebody said something, I've forgotten

what it was about and I said, "Don't worry

"about it mate he's dead
and that's the end of it."

"No he's not!"

As soon as you left the
room his eyes popped open

and he asked us to finish him off.

- Errol Walker
survived his gunshot wounds

and was sentenced to life in prison.

The little girl he took
hostage made a full recovery.

- Far as I was concerned
the bloke was evil.

You know, to murder the child's mother

was heinous enough

but to then brutalize
a four year old child

and then, even when the game was up,

even when clearly the game was over,

to choose to stab the
little girl in front of me.

I lost no sleep over Errol Walker.

Errol Walker survived, I'm sure I

would've lost no sleep had he died.

- Errol Walker
was the first man in Britain

to be shot by the specialist firearms

team but he wouldn't be the last.

Firearms officers will deal
with siege operations daily

and every one will see them put their

lives on the line to keep the peace.

But sometimes, the person
presenting the threat

is also the person who
most needs their help.

- When you are confronted
with somebody with a gun

or a weapon, it's easy to
over rationalize things

and say that they stood
in front of me with a gun

but they are human beings.

This is somebody that
ultimately might just need help.

Take away Hollywood drama,
take away the television.

When it's real, when you're on the street,

your ultimate aim is to
preserve the protection of

the public but also the person
that you're dealing with

and yes they might have a firearm,

yes they might have a weapon

but it's not your job to end their life.

It's your job to bring that

whole incident to a safe conclusion.

- As I ran across the road,

that gun came up in my direction.

- Put the knife down now!

- One of the high risk

situations certainly in my career.

- Oscar this fucker's
shooting at us with an AK47.

- I can remember thinking
I hope it's quick,

- I thought I was going to die.

- I could see that gun come up,

I could see the barrel pointing at me

and he fired.