Siege barrister's wife says police stopped her talking to husband | World news | The Guardian

Quote:

The widow of a successful barrister shot dead by police after an armed siege at their Chelsea home today told an inquest she believed she could have helped him had police allowed her to speak to him on the phone. Mark Saunders, 32, was killed in a volley of shots at the end of a five-hour standoff after he fired a shotgun from a window of their flat on 6 May 2008. His widow, Elizabeth, also a barrister, who rushed home from their chambers to find the building cordoned off. She, said she was told to switch off her mobile phone to keep police channels of communication clear. Close to tears, she said she was unaware that her husband had repeatedly asked if he could speak to her "because nobody told me". She believed she could have defused the situation. "I think he would have just said: 'Darling. I'm sorry.' And I would have said: 'Sweetheart, it's OK. We'll sort this out. Don't worry." Saunders, a well-respected family lawyer, had attended Alcoholics Anonymous and sought medical help for his drinking, which began when he was 13. He had been teetotal since March. On the day he died he was at home, while his wife was at the QEB chambers in London's Temple where they both worked. She suspected he had been drinking heavily when he failed to answer his mobile. She was unaware he had taken cocaine in the days before his death. Westminster coroner's court heard how hours before his death he sent a text message to his friend Alexander Booth, saying: "This is the end my only friend, the end. X", quoting a song by the Doors. A second message said: "Call me now." Taxi driver David Hay picked up Saunders, a former Territorial Army soldier, on Cromwell Street, London, just after 4pm on 6 May. . Mobile phone records showed Saunders had been in Kensington calling escort agencies shortly before. He had also left an email message for a friend that read "Ha, ha, ha," repeating the word 22 times. During the taxi journey, Saunders did not say anything to indicate he was drunk. Hay said in a statement that when they reached the couple's home in Markham Square at 4.30pm and he was giving Saunders his change, "he turned back. He was looking straight at me, and he just said: 'I am going to die.' His eyes were large and bulging. I could see the terror in his eyes. It was scary, like he was on drugs." Saunders, who had a legally held shotgun and was legally storing another shotgun for a friend, fired the first shot 10 minutes later, while on the telephone to a barrister friend, Michael Bradley. He fired another while on the phone to Ivor Treherne, the senior clerk at his own chambers. Lesley Hummel, who lives in a house at the back of the Saunders' property, said in a statement it was a "picture-perfect beautiful day" and she was enjoying lunch in her garden with a friend when they heard the shots. They were being fired into her daughter's bedroom. She saw Saunders, whom she did not know, with a shotgun shooting through the glass in his own kitchen window. "He was looking calm, perfectly stable and contained," she said. At 4.50pm there was an exchange of fire as one shot missed an officer "by less than a foot", said Hummel. During the standoff, Saunders dropped a white cardboard box from the flat window on which he had written a message which said: "I love my wife dearly, love Mark. xxxx." Neighbour Jane Winkworth, who lived below the couple, saw it and believed it to be the message of a "distressed and desperate" young man and not that "of a dangerous killer". In a statement she told the inquest she had expected a "peaceful" outcome and was angry that the police had not brought his wife to try to talk to him. Saunders, who had been firing shots through holes in his kitchen window, then opened the window at 9.20pm. He died when he was hit by at least five bullets fired by seven officers at 9.32pm. All of the police officers, who have been granted anonymity, have said they acted in self-defence or to protect others. The inquest heard Saunders had started drinking at 13, increased his alcohol consumption while at Oxford University and was "out of control" by 2004. Drinking to excess five nights a week, mainly alone, he was drinking 120 units per week – the equivalent of four bottles of spirits. It also heard psychiatric reports that had urged abstinence to control the binges, which left him anxious and depressed. One therapist feared he could become suicidal. He was also prescribed antidepressants. As his binges became more serious, one psychiatrist assessed that because of his "paranoid and belligerent" behaviour during the binges, there was a "real risk" he could be seriously injured, "set upon or stabbed" by others. Booth said of his friend in a statement that when he was "very, very drunk he completely lost touch with reality" and that "you could not engage with him". Saunders' widow said he was a "very sensitive and caring" man with "huge energy and love for life" but there were times when it "went wrong" with alcohol. During the siege she felt "surplus to requirements" and "did not know what was going on". She sensed the police "needed me out of the way to get on with their job". She had "never" switched her mobile phone off to her husband before being told to do so by police on 6 May. When she turned it back on after his death, she found a blank text message from him. "That would have been the only time in our relationship that he sent me a text message and he did not get an immediate call from me saying 'Darling, I am here', she said. "That is very difficult for me, but there it is. I did not know he had called." The inquest, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.

__________________
Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.

Looks like they really fucked this one up.

Mark Saunders inquest: firearms officer tells of barrister's notes asking for wife | UK news | The Guardian

Quote:

Barrister Mark Saunders, shot dead by police during a siege at his London home, wrote notes pleading to speak to his wife and threatening to kill himself during the five-hour stand-off, an inquest heard today. The 32-year-old lawyer, a regular cocaine user who was more than three times over the drink-drive limit, also repeatedly told police negotiators he was frightened. Westminster coroner's court heard the former Territorial Army soldier, who had been firing his shotgun from his kitchen window, wandered around his flat drinking from a bottle of wine with his shotgun in his hand as police surrounded his home in Markham Square, Chelsea on 6 May 2008. At various times he held notes to the window, said a firearms officer giving evidence anonymously. The first, at 7.55pm, had a single word: "Wife". The second read: "To my wife, information to my wife". At 8.15pm another read: "I love my wife to bits, I think I really do". The last at 8.19pm, just over an hour before he was shot, said: "I want to say goodbye, kill myself". Other notes recovered from the scene included: "Please, I want to talk to my wife", "I don't know how this happened", " I'm not a bad lad", "Mum" and "I can't hear". Saunders died when he was hit by at least five bullets fired by police marksmen at 9.32pm. Police said they fired in self-defence and to protect others. In his statement, the officer, known only as Sergeant SE, described watching the shooting on a film link from the police helicopter overhead. "I saw Mr Saunders start to bring the shotgun down. The barrel was starting to come down and I was saying 'no, no, no' to myself. At the moment it reached the horizontal, pointing to the row of containment officers, I heard the volley of shots". Saunders's widow, Elizabeth, had previously told the inquest she did not know her husband had repeatedly asked for her, and she was unable to call him as police told her to turn her phone off. Friend and fellow barrister, Michael Bradley, told the jury that police response to a request by him and Saunders's wife to "knock on the door" and talk to her husband was "instant and negative". He added that the police had said: "Absolutely no way, can't do that for your own safety". Bradley said he arrived outside the flat after receiving a drunken, "meandering" call from Saunders at about 4.30pm, which ended with him hearing the loud bang of the first shot. He dialled 999 and got a taxi to Chelsea. He found the road cordoned off and Saunders's wife "sitting sobbing with her head in her hands" being looked after by police officers in a nearby shop.. "Liz thought that Mark would find this terrifying and distressing. I remember her asking could they try to move people out of sight so that he wasn't faced with looking at a police siege. It might dampen things down, because she was worried how Mark would feel if he recognised the situation," he said. At the time, Bradley said, he thought it was the "best option" – a way of "de-escalating this terrible, dark scenario". "It was now a nightmare armed siege and I feared then that, if he was ever conscious of what he had done, he might turn the gun on himself". Patrick Gibbs, the QC representing Elizabeth Saunders, told the jury he thought the policing "seemed chaotic". There seemed to be "only two guys running the show on the ground", one a negotiator in casual clothes, the other a uniformed officer. "It did seem to me there was no guiding hand controlling matters," he said. The most senior officer in charge was former Met commander Ali Dizaei, who was last year jailed for corruption. He said, in a statement, he had imposed a gold strategy to "provide all reasonable steps" to contain the area. The day-to-day running of the operation was left to officers under his command. At 7.02pm, said Bradley, he received a call from Mr Saunders but all he could hear was slow breathing. After that both he and Saunders's wife were told to turn their phones off to keep the line of communication open for police. Asked if he was "tempted" to just go and knock on the door, he replied: "No. When you're in that situation, it feels like a nightmare, totally unreal. How can this be happening? "You are absolutely not in control. There are police everywhere, these guys with body armour and guns crawling through the back and on to the roof. "There are helicopters and ambulances. The road is cordoned off and you are being given orders, effectively. Not in a brutish way, but you are not being given any option." He said he had no concern that Saunders would hurt him. Toxicology tests on the lawyer found up to 255mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. Dr Stephen Morley, who analysed the samples, said there would be "significant effects". Hair and urine samples revealed he had taken cocaine repeatedly over the previous six months, but though he had taken the drug in the days before his death, he had not done so within 12 hours of the shooting. The inquest heard that seven out of the 12 firearms officers stationed in and on the building in Bywater Street, which backs on to Markham Square, fired. Saunders suffered five gunshot wounds and was grazed by a sixth, with injuries to the brain, heart and liver and arms. The jury was visiting the scene of the shooting this evening. The case continues.

__________________
Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.

Mark Saunders inquest: police didn't consider allowing wife to visit gunman - Telegraph

Quote:

Mr Saunders was shot dead by police marksmen surrounding his £2.2 million home in Markham Square, Chelsea, on May 6, 2008 after firing a gun from a window of his house. The inquest into the 32-year-old's death has heard that his family criticised police for blocking his wife Elizabeth despite her husband's repeated requests to speak to her. Detective Inspector Steve Wagstaff was asked today if it had crossed his mind at the beginning of the incident that Mrs Saunders or his close friend Michael Bradley should be allowed to attend. The officer, who was co-ordinating hostage negotiators at the scene, said: ''Not in the circumstances.'' Asked why not, he said: ''We had somebody in a flat, armed with a gun, shots had been discharged, our duty is to protect the public.'' Asked about a suggestion that conversations between someone in his role and his senior officer should be recorded, he said he agreed with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner that this could restrict free thinking in tense and difficult situations. But asked for exact details of what he had passed on about Mr Saunders's drunken condition, he said he could not remember. ''I would have summarised Mark's demeanour at every practical opportunity,'' he said. Mr Saunders's family yesterday watched harrowing footage that showed the moment he died in a volley of bullets. His sister Charlotte wept as a dramatic two-and-a-half hour film was shown to the inquest jury. His widow walked out of Westminster Coroner's Court as footage shot by a police helicopter and an audio recording of negotiations was played. The inquest, sitting in Marylebone, has heard how the legal high-flyer waved a shotgun from his smashed kitchen window before fatefully pointing it towards armed officers. Mr Saunders sparked a five-hour siege when he fired his legally-held shotgun while on the phone to a friend at 4.40pm after a lonely afternoon drinking binge. Highly-trained negotiators started trying to open a dialogue by calling his mobile phone at about 7pm. The inquest has heard how they were impeded by a power cut at their temporary operations base, a disconnected landline and the noise of the helicopter hovering overhead. Mr Saunders played music loudly as he staggered around swigging wine, falling down the stairs and repeatedly vomiting violently. The inquest has heard he texted a friend with a line from the song by The Doors, The End, used in the soundtrack to Apocalypse Now, saying: ''This is the end my only friend, the end.'' Tense discussions entered a final, terrifying phase when Mr Saunders blasted the weapon a second time through the window at 9.09pm, provoking two police shots that hit no-one. At about 9.31pm, he brought the shotgun out of the window and waved it erratically in the air as a police officer shouted, ''Put the gun down'' through a loud hailer. One minute later, Mr Saunders, illuminated by a spotlight from a police helicopter, slowly lowered the barrel before being hit in the head and chest by five police shots.

__________________
Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.

Mark Saunders inquest: shot barrister's gun not in firing position | World news | The Guardian

Quote:

The shotgun found near the body of barrister Mark Saunders was in the "broken" or "open" position, suggesting it was unable to have been fired, an inquest was told. Shortly before collapsing in a hail of police bullets, the 32-year-old divorce lawyer was seen apparently trying to operate a "switch or lever" on the top side of his "up and under" Beretta silver shotgun. The gun had a lever on top which had to be moved to "open" it and once "open" could not be fired, Westminster coroner's court heard. The evidence came as one firearms officer revealed he did not fire on the lawyer because he could not justify it and did not believe the Oxford graduate was taking aim at anyone. Saunders, who was very drunk, was killed by five bullets from seven officers as he appeared to take aim, but had not fired his weapon immediately before the fatal police volley, though he had done so earlier in the five-hour siege that ended with his death on 6 May 2008. One of the marksmen who shot him, known only as AZ4, said he fired as Saunders, who was hanging out of his kitchen window, looked as if he was "ready to shoulder it [the gun] and take aim" and he believed there was imminent threat to the lives of colleagues on a nearby roof. Nicholas Hilliard, counsel for the inquest, asked him: "Did you know that the gun, when found after the incident, was open or broken?". He replied: "Yes." Hilliard continued: "Did you know there's a lever on top that you would have to move to open the gun? In your statement you said Mr Saunders appeared to be trying to operate a switch or lever on the top side of the weapon. Did you think he was trying to open the weapon so that the gun would be open or broken?" "No," replied the officer. He added Saunders, who had been seen holding his shotgun in a safe position inside his flat, was now behaving in a "completely uncharacteristic" way and could have been preparing the safety catch "in readiness to take aim and fire", he said. Another firearms officer present did not shoot because he said he could not justify it. Officer AZ14, who was stationed in a nearby basement with his MP5 carbine trained on the lawyer, told the hearing: "If I did not believe the firearm was pointing at anybody I wasn't going to pull the trigger. I have to believe there is a threat to life. That threat to life is going to come when I believe the firearm is pointing at someone … I could also not see his hand in relation to the trigger. At this moment I could not justify taking a shot." He did not believe Saunders was aiming at colleagues at another containment point: "I was quite certain as to where I believe the gun was pointing. It was pointing diagonally up at the rooftop of 45 [the neighbouring property]. I knew there were no officers present at that location so I could not justify taking a shot." He heard "a loud bang and before that had even stopped ringing out, a cacophony of noise". He did not think Saunders had fired. "I hadn't seen the gun recoil, nothing to suggest to my mind that Mr Saunders had fired at that point." The inquest heard Saunders had blood on his arm after police shot at him earlier when he fired. He was heard shouting: "You lied, you lied." The hearing has been told he was "terrified" of being shot by police, and negotiators had repeatedly reassured him "no one is going to shoot you". The hearing continues.

__________________
Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.

This is a total car crash. I'm keeping reading just to see whether it'll turn out that the cops did something right at any point.

'Hang on, I can't hear' ? barrister's last words before police shooting | UK news | The Guardian

Quote:

Barrister Mark Saunders was shouting: "I can't hear" in the final minute of his life, an inquest heard today. The 32-year-old lawyer's last words were recorded in a contemporaneous "armed incident log" before he died one minute later in a hail of police bullets at the end of a five-hour siege at his Chelsea home. Westminster coroner's court has heard that firearms officers stationed at nearby properties shot the Oxford graduate, who was drunk and armed with a 12-bore shotgun, after screaming at him to "put the gun down" and believing he was taking aim at them as a helicopter hovered. He suffered "catastrophic" injuries from five bullets fired as he waved his shotgun from his kitchen window in Markham Square at 9.32pm on 6 May 2008. Georgia Wilson, from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), said the log showed at 21.26 the lawyer was hanging out of the window "groaning and swaying". Patrick Gibbs QC, for Saunders's widow, Elizabeth, asked: "At 21.31, this is very shortly before shots were fired, he is leaning out the window and has a telephone in his left hand which he then puts down, blood is seen on his right arm, and he is saying either: 'I want to hear you' or 'I can't hear you', is that right?" "That's right," Wilson replied. "In the final minute of his life he is hanging out of the window pointing a shotgun upwards saying: "Hang on, I can't hear,'" said Gibbs. Earlier logs showed Saunders, who had previously been talking to police negotiators by mobile phone, was seen waving his landline phone in his window and shaking it. He also held up a mobile and had held up notes to the window. The barrister had 203 live rounds of shotgun ammunition, with 14 live rounds found scattered in the kitchen, one in the living room, and 53 in the lounge. He had fired eight shots during the siege, with six used cartridges found in the kitchen and two in the dining room passageway, the inquest heard. Blood stains found on the inside of the barrel of his shotgun, on the kitchen window and sash key, a wine bottle, stereo remote, chair, sofa and curtain suggested he had suffered a "relatively minor injury" prior to the fatal shooting, possibly caused by glass. Traces of saliva were found on the muzzle of his Beretta gun. Jurors were told that throughout the five-hour siege a terrified mother was trapped in her bathroom with her two small daughters in the house next door despite ringing 999 seven times pleading for help. Each time Karen Richard was assured her message would be passed onto police, but the Metropolitan police never rang back, did not evacuate her, and in the two years since have failed to apologise. She first rang at 16.51pm to report hearing shots, and again at 17.22pm to say she had seen police "aiming guns at our house" and "what's going on?", Wilson told the inquest. She was advised to stay away from the windows and move towards the back of her house. She dialled 999 again at 17.49pm and 18.34pm saying she was locked in her bathroom and begging for someone to tell her what to do. At 19.39pm she rang to say she had seen a neighbour being evacuated and "should she have been evacuated?". At 21.23 she dialled 999 again, said Wilson. With the sound of a baby crying in the background, she told the operator: "This is Karen Richard in 45 Markham Square. I am next door to Mark, I guess. I am hearing his name, the guy doing the shooting, and I'm hearing banging now like he's banging his wall onto my wall or something. "I don't know if he was banging against the wall. I'm locked in the bathroom and don't want to come out. I'm scared." At 22.03, more than half-an-hour after Saunders was shot, she rang again to say she could no longer hear the helicopter. Shortly after she was taken from her premises. Coroner Dr Paul Knapman expressed surprise that, though she had made no formal complaint to police, she had received no apology. "She's on the phone, she's rung 999 seven times, many times asking somebody to ring her back. She says she was never rung back. There's been no communication. "It appears she was very frightened. She had two small children and nobody was telling her what to do." Wilson replied the police did not think it "appropriate" to take any action before the conclusion of the inquest. The hearing continues.

__________________
Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.

One thing I have not seen mentioned is what sort of ammunition he had. This shotgun is essentially a pigeon weapon, although it does run up to 12-gauge, which is useful against people. But you'd be hard pressed to kill with a 20-gauge load, and it would be useless against body armour. Either way I guess the police couldn't know what sort of ammo he was using, but it would add to understanding how dangerous he really was.