Shortly after 4.45pm on 29 May 2001 a Police Ombudsman Senior Investigating Officer received notification from the RUC that an officer had discharged a firearm while on duty near the Crumlin Road/Hillview Road intersection in Belfast.
Upon investigating the incident the Police Ombudsman's office established that a total of 21 shots were discharged during a police operation to prevent a suspected armed robbery.
Police, who had been monitoring the activities of the suspected robbers in the run up to the incident, had seen two males leaving a car and getting into a red van.
A police car moved in to attempt to stop the van, and a collision occurred between the two vehicles. Two officers got out of the patrol car and ordered the driver of the van to stop. He ignored the warning. As the vehicle continued to move, reversing into a wall before moving forward again, a police officer fired a total of four warning shots into the air, before firing 17 rounds at the front driver's side wheel in an attempt to immobilise the vehicle. The officer said these shots had been fired from a distance of two to three metres in the hope of deflating the tyre to affect the handling of the vehicle.
The shots failed to immobilise the van, which was subsequently stopped when it collided with a civilian vehicle parked on the Hillview Road. Two men were apprehended at the scene and a blank firing replica Glock self-loading pistol was recovered from the passenger footwell of the van.
Outcome of investigation:
A report from a forensic scientist at the Northern Ireland Forensic Science laboratory confirmed that 21 spent cartridge cases had been recovered at the scene, having been discharged from a police weapon. This matched the police firearms log relating to the incident. Two bullets were also recovered from the bodywork of the van.
As well as interviewing the officers involved, Police Ombudsman investigators spoke to a number of civilian witnesses, including a young woman and her sister who had been driving along the Hillview Road. The girls both stated that they had seen two officers firing at the van (which contradicts the forensic evidence), and expressed the belief that police had been reckless in the use of their firearms. The Ombudsman's report, however, notes that the girls' instinctive response to the incident was to take cover, and this must be taken into consideration in relation to their recollection of events.
It was also established that the firearm training records of the officer involved were up-to-date and in order.
In conclusion, the Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, commented that intelligence available to the police prior to the incident suggested that officers were justified in firing the shots, as it indicated that one of the men was armed.
She said that, faced with a potentially life-threatening situation to thwart two potentially dangerous armed criminals, the officer had acted spontaneously and within the guidelines prevailing at that date.
She added, however, that it was questionable whether the discharge of the shots would have achieved the officer's aims, with a vehicle unlikely to be stopped by such actions and stray shots or ricochet posing a danger to the public. (The police officer, however, said that he was aware the rounds he was firing were low-velocity which minimised the risk of ricochet).
The Ombudsman also pointed out that new guidelines were introduced by the PSNI in relation to the Force Firearm Policy on 2 July 2001, and added "It would be hoped that should a similar situation arise again, it would be dealt with differently by the officer, but it has to be recognised that when any officer is involved in such a dangerous situation the decisions he has to make are split second decisions and he does not have the luxury of having the time to debate the situation."