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Sky News
3 days ago
- Sky News
Officers who confronted 'coward' Southport killer Axel Rudakubana win police bravery award
Three police officers, who have been voted Britain's bravest officers, have described confronting, disarming and arresting the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. The trio, from the Merseyside force, were first on the scene as the crazed teenager rampaged with a knife through a children's dance workshop last summer, murdering three youngsters and attacking others. Southport wasn't Sergeant Greg Gillespie's beat and he was there that day covering for a colleague on holiday. He described the scene outside the building on Hart Street as he arrived on his own. He said: "There was maybe 20 or 25 adults, and all of them were looking at me, and all of them have this look of terror and fear, panic on their faces and I knew whatever it was we were turning up to was really, really bad." His colleagues PC Luke Holden, 31, and PCSO Tim Parry, 32, drove fast from Southport police station and were 30 seconds or so behind Sgt Gillespie. PC Holden said: "I jumped out of the police car, and immediately there were people running up to me and one was an off-duty colleague who was screaming and crying, pointing 'he's in there, he's there' and then as I started to run to the building I could see blood all over the floor. "As I got to the door, that was partially smashed. Greg was stood there one foot in, one foot out. "There was a large puddle of blood on the floor outside the door and he just looked at me for one second and said, are you ready? And that was it, there was no conversation. "There was nothing else going on. He said, 'Are you ready', and I said, 'yeah, let's go'." 'It was a horrific scene' PCSO Parry, who doesn't carry a baton or a pepper spray like his colleagues, went to the back of the building to stop people going, help anyone who needed it and get information on the number of suspects inside. He said: "It was a horrific scene to really go into because I was so unprepared with the equipment I had." An additional problem for the three officers was the absence of firearms back-up; none of the force's armed response units were close by. Inside the building was death, injury, fear and chaos. PC Holden said: "Walking in, I identified the suspect with a bloodied knife in his hand at the top of the stairs, pointed my taser at him and thought this is going to go one of two ways. "He's gonna listen to us or he's gonna fight with us and try and stab us. "Me and Greg formed a solid wall with our shoulders, walking up the stairs so he couldn't get past us. "He was a couple of metres away, within striking distance, and I thought if he does anything to threaten me or any sort of movement I don't like, he would be tasered immediately." Rudakubana was a 'coward' Sgt Gillespie, 42, said he'd read media reports suggesting Rudakubana had already decided to give himself up by the time police arrived. He said: "I disagree with that. I saw him, made eye contact with him, saw his facial expression, saw his body language and the way he moved himself into a position at the top of the stairs, showing us he had a knife. "He was fronting us, like he was saying 'I've got a knife, what are you going to do about it?' And I think the second he realised he was looking at two people who weren't scared of him... all that bravery that he must have summoned up to attack defenceless children... he lost that straightaway and he threw down the knife. "It'd be hard to paint him as more of a coward than he actually is, but I think that shows a lot. He was all brave to attack children, but the second he saw two men walking towards him, he didn't want to know." But the officers had no idea if Rudakubana had more weapons, so they attacked him and knocked him to the ground. PCSO Parry ended up on top of the suspect. He said: "Through adrenaline I just kind of put him on his front to make sure he wasn't going anywhere until other colleagues arrived. "I was trying to alert anyone else hiding in the building that everything had, hopefully, now stopped and we would deal with them as best we could and make sure they were safe." 1:40 In January, Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time, admitted the murders of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar who was nine. He also admitted the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 52 years to serve. Bravery award is 'bittersweet' At his sentencing, the judge said that if he hadn't been stopped he would have gone on to kill all 26 children at the dance class. "By the time we got the call I think it was already too late to save two of the victims," said Sgt Gillespie. "But there was an adult, one of the dance teachers, who was shielding another child in the toilet, within arm's distance from him and I don't think he realised. "If he had known they were there I'm sure he would have tried to attack them, so it's a good job we got there when we did because we potentially saved them from being injured or killed." Before winning last night's accolade, PCSO Parry summed up the trio's thoughts about their bravery award nomination. He said: "It's bittersweet. I feel proud being nominated, but it comes off the back of such a horrific incident. "It's hard to explain. It's good to have the recognition from your peers and colleagues, but in my eyes it's not like a celebration." 70 officers from around England and Wales were nominated for the Police Federation national bravery awards.
Sky News
4 days ago
- Sky News
Officers who confronted Southport killer reveal how they disarmed him - as they are nominated for police bravery award
Why you can trust Sky News The officers who confronted the Southport killer have described, for the first time publicly, how they disarmed him - as they joined a list of 70 officers nominated for a police bravery award. Sergeant Greg Gillespie, 42, PC Luke Holden, 31, and PCSO Tim Parry, 32, were the first to arrive as Axel Rudakubana rampaged with a knife through a holiday dance school last summer. Speaking to Sky News about what they saw when arriving at the scene, Sgt Gillespie said: "There was maybe 20 or 25 adults and all of them were looking at me, all of them have this look of terror and fear, panic on their faces and I knew whatever it was we were turning up to was really, really bad." His colleagues drove fast from Southport police station and were thirty seconds or so behind Sgt Gillespie. PC Holden said he saw "a large puddle of blood on the floor outside the door" and said Sgt Gillespie "just looked at me" and asked if he was ready. "That was it, there was no conversation. There was nothing else going on. He said, 'Are you ready?' and I said, 'Yeah, let's go'." PCSO Parry, who doesn't carry a baton or pepper spray like his colleagues, went to the back of the building to stop people from entering, help anyone who needed it, and get information on the number of suspects inside. He said: "It was a horrific scene to really go into because I was so unprepared with the equipment I had." Sgt Gillespie and PC Holden identified the suspect at the top of the stairs, a bloodied knife in his hand, and walked towards him shoulder to shoulder. "I saw him, made eye contact with him, saw his facial expression, saw his body language and the way he moved himself into a position at the top of the stairs, showing us he had a knife," Sgt Gillespie said. "He was fronting us, like he was saying, 'I've got a knife, what are you going to do about it?' "And I think the second he realised he was looking at two people who weren't scared of him, who were going to attack him, all that bravery that he must have summoned up to attack defenceless children, he lost that straightaway, and he threw down the knife." In January, Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, admitted the murders of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, aged six and Alice da Silva Aguiar, who was nine, as well 10 charges of attempted murder, as well as possessing terrorist material and production of the biological toxin, ricin. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 52 years - with the sentencing judge saying it was "highly likely" he would never be released. Dozens nominated for bravery awards The Merseyside trio are among 70 officers from around England and Wales who have been nominated for tonight's Police Federation national bravery awards. They include two sergeants from Sussex who swam to the rescue of a vulnerable teenager struggling to stay afloat at night off Brighton beach. Police with torches had located her in the sea fifty metres from the shore, but a lifeline they threw to her didn't reach. Sergeant Craig Lees said: "We could see that she was starting to struggle with the cold and tide, and she began to dip under the water. We knew we needed to do something, and that was that we needed to get into the water and swim out to her." His colleague and friend Sergeant Matthew Seekings said: "I don't think it's in the blood of any police officer to watch somebody at risk or somebody needing help and not do something. "When you're in the sea, it's pitch black, you don't even know where the bottom is, it's terrifying, and I can only imagine how the female was feeling." Battling their own fatigue, the two officers managed to get the girl to shore, where colleagues and paramedics were waiting to take over. In Devizes, Wiltshire, PC Nicola Crabbe was called to a town centre fight between two men, one of whom had a knife. 'Just saturated in blood' "They were grappling, and they were just saturated in blood," said PC Crabbe, who confronted the man she thought was the knifeman. "I was in the middle of the road when I grabbed hold of him, and there was a member of the public just there, and that's when he explained to me that I had the wrong person." Armed only with a baton and Pava pepper spray, she grappled with the suspect, trying to find his knife. She said: "At one point he grabbed my hair and kind of dragged me around a bit, so I Pava'd him which just had no effect at all." PC Crabbe managed to restrain the knifeman until colleagues arrived and arrested him. The full list of award winners will be announced on Thursday night during a dinner at a West London hotel.
