Published Date: 23.07.2015

The Police Ombudsman has concluded that a PSNI officer was justified in discharging two warning shots during an operation to detain a number of men suspected of involvement in a kidnap plot.

The incident happened in the Magherafelt area on 16 October 2009, when police mounted an operation after receiving information about an anticipated “tiger” kidnapping.

All police firearms discharges are routinely referred by the Chief Constable to the Police Ombudsman for independent investigation.

The officers involved in the incident later told Police Ombudsman investigators that, having been deployed to an area around a house, they saw three men putting on balaclavas and moving to the rear of the property.

The officers had also received a radio transmission that one of the men was armed. They were positioned close to the men and said they heard what they believed to be a weapon being cocked (made ready for use).

At that point the officers broke cover, shouted “Armed police, get down” while one of the officers simultaneously discharged two warning shots above the heads of the three men.

The officer said the shots had been fired in the direction of Lough Neagh, which was nearby.

The officers then trained their weapons and shone their torches on the men as they approached them. A further warning of “Armed police, stand still” was shouted, and the men went to the ground with their hands on the back of their heads.

A handgun was then found near one of the men. An officer said he stood on it to prevent its use, while he and his colleagues continued to train their weapons on the suspects until the arrival of additional officers who arrested them and took them into police custody.

Police Ombudsman investigators established that the officer who discharged the shots was properly trained and authorised to use the weapon at the time of the incident.

They also found that the geography of the area was such that the shots would have posed little or no risk. The area was sparsely populated, and Lough Neagh was only a short distance away.

The Police Ombudsman concluded that, given the threat to public and police safety during the incident, that the use of live fire warning shots was a “lawful, proportionate and justified use of force”.