Police were justified in using Taser against a man who was acting aggressively with a knife, and who officers believed may also have had a gun, an investigation by the Police Ombudsman’s Office has concluded.
The incident happened as police were attempting to apprehend a man suspected of involvement in a spate of armed robberies in the Woodstock Road and Albertbridge Road areas of east Belfast in April 2010.
At 08:38 hours police received a 999 call that an armed robbery was in progress at a business on the Woodstock Road. Two men were reported to have run off from the scene, one of them reportedly with a gun.
Their descriptions were similar to descriptions which had been circulated by police following other robberies in the area earlier that morning.
Police tracked down the suspects to a nearby house. One was apprehended as he tried to escape via an upstairs rear window onto the roof of the property.
The other remained upstairs and refused police requests to come down. Given that he may have had a gun, a police Armed Response Vehicle containing three officers was tasked to the scene.
Officers tried to reason with the man, and shortly after 09:00 hours he came down the stairs holding a kitchen knife. His wrists had been cut in several places and his forearms were smeared with blood.
Two officers reported that the man was shouting aggressively as he continued to approach with the knife pointed towards them. Both said they had their Tasers trained on him, and warned him several times to drop the knife.
The officers said the man then reached towards the waistband of his jeans. Fearing that he was reaching for a gun, both officers discharged their Tasers in quick succession. Both missed and the man ran back up the stairs.
He stayed there for several more hours – during which time he was reported to have told officers “I have 24 bullets, that’s 24 dead cops” and “I’m going to hang myself” - before surrendering himself to police at 12:34 hours. A large kitchen knife and imitation pistol were retrieved from the scene.
The man was taken to hospital for treatment before being charged at Musgrave Police Station.
All discharges of police firearms are referred by police to the Police Ombudsman for independent investigation. After being informed about the incident, Police Ombudsman investigators attended the scene, which was photographed and forensically examined. Statements were received from officers who had been involved in the incident.
In addition, relevant police documentation and radio transmissions were analysed, and these confirmed that the officers who discharged the Tasers had been informed that one of the suspects was believed to have “a blade” and a firearm.
Bluetooth technology was also used to send text messages to mobile phones in the area appealing for witnesses to come forward, although no one did so.
Having reviewed all the evidence, the Police Ombudsman, Dr Michael Maguire, concluded that the use of Taser had been justified given the threat posed by the suspect. He noted that Taser was only used after attempts to negotiate with the suspect had failed, and only after he had ignored warnings.
Dr Maguire also, however, noted a discrepancy of some 14 seconds between the timings of the discharges indicated by the two Tasers – despite the officers’ accounts that the weapons had been fired virtually simultaneously. The times recorded were also found to be one hour out from the actual time.
Evidence indicated that the clocks on the weapons had not been properly synchronised.
“Had the circumstances of these discharges been more contentious,” said Dr Maguire, “the discrepancies in timings between the two discharges could have raised significant issues.”
Consequently Dr Maguire recommended that police should consider taking measures to ensure that Tasers are correctly synchronised. The PSNI have since written to the Police Ombudsman to confirm the implementation of this recommendation.