A police officer has received advice, guidance and training following a Police Ombudsman investigation of a shooting incident on the M1 motorway in December 2001.
The incident occurred near Sprucefield, when police managed to bring a stolen Ford Escort car to a temporary halt following a high-speed pursuit covering more than 13 miles.
A police officer discharged two shots as the Escort accelerated from a halt directly towards him.
All discharges of police firearms in Northern Ireland are referred by the Chief Constable to the Police Ombudsman's Office for investigation. The Police Ombudsman's on-call Senior Investigating Officer launched an investigation after being informed about the incident by mobile phone.
During their investigation, the Police Ombudsman's team secured a variety of evidence to establish the course of events leading to the discharge of the firearm. This included statements from the officers and a civilian involved in the incident, audio tapes of police radio transmissions, forensic evidence from the police car and the suspect vehicle, along with the officer's gun and firearm training records.
The investigators established that the incident had begun in Newry at about 5.45am on Monday 10 December 2001 when a local resident noticed two males acting suspiciously near his home. One of the men was seen to get out of a neighbour’s car and into the Escort, which later checks confirmed was stolen.
The Escort drove off at speed, pursued by the resident in his own vehicle. After a short distance the car stopped and a man got out and threw a wheelbrace which shattered the windscreen of the pursuing vehicle. The pursuit then resumed at speed.
As the local resident followed the suspect vehicle he contacted police on his mobile phone and remained online to give a running commentary to police communications in Newry. He also provided a partial registration number for the Escort. The cars reportedly reached speeds of up to 85mph on the A1 dual carriageway, travelling north towards Belfast.
Meanwhile, police in Newry had tasked a liveried police car from Banbridge to intercept the Escort. Contact with the civilian driver was maintained and information relayed from him to the police car via the police radio.
Once satisfied that the police had the situation in hand, police directed the civilian driver to stop his pursuit, which he did.
The officers in the police car, which was travelling southwards on the A1, located the suspect vehicle travelling at speed on the opposite carriageway. They noted that it was swerving between other vehicles and forcing other drivers to take evasive action to avoid collision. They also noted the full registration of the car, which matched the partial registration which had previously been supplied.
The police turned around and set off in pursuit, following the Escort for just over 13 miles to the 40mph zone close to the Sprucefield roundabout. It continued to swerve erratically from lane to lane during this time, narrowly missing other vehicles and ignoring the sirens and signals to stop from the pursuing officers.
As the cars travelled around the Sprucefield roundabout and onto the slip road leading to the M1 motorway, the Escort rammed into the police car a number of times, colliding with its rear and driver's side. The police car sustained severe superficial damage, but remained driveable.
The pursuit then continued onto the citybound carriageway of the M1, at which point the cars collided again, which resulted in the Escort spinning through 180 degrees and briefly coming to a halt. The police car stopped and as the two officers got out of their vehicle the Escort performed a U turn and took off again at speed.
The police resumed the pursuit and managed to overtake the Escort, at which point it again drove into the side of the police car. The Escort came to a halt for a second time, and the police vehicle stopped on the carriageway some 20 yards ahead of it.
The driver of the police vehicle then got out of the car, and was standing roughly two to three feet from the vehicle when the Escort accelerated at speed directly towards him. He stated that he felt trapped, with the barrier of the central reservation on his left and the police car with its doors closed on his right.
He told the Police Ombudsman's investigators that he had nowhere to go and thought he was going to die. He drew his gun, aimed it at the car and shouted a warning, ordering the suspects to get out of the vehicle or he would shoot.
He then discharged two shots, which missed both the car and its occupants. The vehicle struck him on the hand as it passed and continued along the motorway before exiting at the next junction, at which point the officers lost contact.
The Escort was later recovered by police and confirmed to have been stolen. Evidence retrieved from this car, the police vehicle and from the scene was submitted to the Northern Ireland Forensic Science Laboratory for analysis, as was the officer's gun.
Tests confirmed that the police vehicle and the suspect Escort had been in collision with each other and with the motorway crash barriers on a number of occasions. The officer's gun was found to be in good working order and showed evidence of having been fired recently.
The other officer who had been travelling in the police car provided an account which corroborated that of his colleague. The audio tapes of police radio transmissions also confirmed the officer's account of the pursuit up to the Sprucefield roundabout.
Examination of the officer's firearms training record showed it to be in order - he had registered a pass score of 96% during refresher training in August 2001.
Outcome of investigation:
The Police Ombudsman, Mrs Nuala O'Loan, concluded that the officers had been involved in a "hot pursuit of a suspect vehicle, the occupants of which had no intention of stopping".
She said the suspects had been prepared to go to almost any lengths to avoid apprehension, and noted that the officer involved believed his life was in danger and felt he had no other option but to fire at the suspect vehicle.
However, Mrs O'Loan expressed the view that instead of driving close enough to the stolen car to result in his own vehicle being rammed, the officer should have observed from a safe distance until other resources were able to assist.
She also stated that by leaving his vehicle and standing in from of the Escort he put himself at risk of serious injury, particularly given the previous actions of the driver of the suspect car.
These actions had placed him in a position where "his options had been reduced to that of discharging his firearm at the driver of the vehicle, who he believed was about to run him over.
"The bullets missed the car and could have hit other members of the public," noted Mrs O'Loan.
The report also noted that Belfast Regional Control, the communications control centre for the area in which the shooting incident had taken place, was not contacted during the pursuit.
The Police Ombudsman therefore concluded that the officer had not followed police guidelines in his handling of the incident.
"It is evident that had the force guidelines in relation to the pursuit of vehicles been adhered to the other, less lethal, options may have been available i.e. the use of the stinger device or following the vehicle at a safe distance while other alternatives were considered and implemented.
"Taking into account all the circumstances and evidence in the case, it would appear that the use of lethal force was neither justified or proportionate."
Recommendations to police as a result of the investigation:
The Police Ombudsman made five recommendations to the Police Service of Northern Ireland as a result of the investigation:
- That the officer should receive advice, guidance and training in relation to vehicle pursuits and the discharge of his firearm. The PSNI accepted this recommendation and the officer has since received this advice.
- That specialist commentary training should be an essential component of police driver training.
- That police drivers' discretion to chase should be clarified and central management and control of incidents should be increased.
- That the PSNI should review its current instructions regarding vehicle pursuits to ensure uniformity across Northern Ireland. During the investigation, it was established that separate directions for vehicle pursuits had been issued within the Belfast Urban Region. These added to the guidelines issued generally within the force. They were not, however, issued to officers in other parts of Northern Ireland.
- It was also recommended that police drivers whose operational areas border on or have access to motorways should be trained in motorway pursuits. While Traffic Officers receive such training, territorial officers (such as the officer involved in this incident) do not.
These recommendations were brought to the attention of the PSNI, and have now been addressed or are in the process of being addressed.