The Police ‘Killed’ Raoul Moat? Life And Death In Pictures
RAOUL Moat is dead. Did the actions of the police kill him? Did the police put the public at risk?
After seven days searching and six hours of negotiations, Moat killed himself.
The media continues to broadcast the story of a man who murdered Chris Brown, the lover of his girlfriend Samantha Stobbart – he shot her, too. He then shot PC David Rathband. He then shot himself with a shotgun aimed under this chin.
Raoul Moat was a danger to life. Who would be a copper making ready to jump on the armed man who pledges to kill police? But did the police make a mess of it?
The Mirror yells: “DEATH BY TASER.”
Timeline:
On Thursday July 1, Raoul Moat left Durham Prison. He issued a threat:
“I’ve lost everything . . . my lass of six year has gone off with the copper . . . watch and see what happens.”
Durham Prison staff tell Northumbria Police that Moat wants to “cause serious harm to his partner” Sam Stobbart, mother to his young daughter Chanel.
On July 3, Raoul Moat murders Brown and shoots Stobbart at her mother’s home in Gateshead.
Monday 5 July and Moat hands his friend Andy Mcallister a 49-page “murder statement“.
Late on Thursday July 8, Moat is seen walking along Rothbury the high street. One day alter, Moat tries to catch a lift in a passing van. The drive recognises Moat and speeds off. Moat kicks his van.
The Friend:
Moat’s best friend Anthony Wright was brought in to talk to Moat. He never got the chance. Says he:
“When I got there the police said he was calm and they had the situation under control. They expected to be talking to him all night and maybe into the next day. The negotiator was a real professional and he was stunned that Raoul killed himself.
“Why did it go from preparing me to speaking to him to him shooting himself? Something must have triggered it – and I’m sure it was the fact they shocked him. Later the negotiator had his head in his hands… he said it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
The Celebrity Moat
The police publicise Moat and give his narcissism oxygen. We wonder if building Moat up led to his walking along Rothbury high street? Was he armed when he took a stroll? And if he was, might the police’s media handling of the case – all that telling us how everyone is a target – led to Moat’s act of bravado?
* Psychologists say Raoul Moat came out of hiding in a final act of defiance after police reassured residents: “You won’t see him walking down the street.”
Did the police, desperate to flush Moat out, put the public at risk?
By Thursday, Moat was being treated, rightly, as a danger to the public. But suspects who bombard the authorities with messages generally have attention-seeking personalities, and it’s not hard to imagine the effect on such people of endless press statements and mawkish public appeals. ‘Do not leave your children with distressing memories of their father. You still have a future’, Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Adamson declared in one of his appeals to Moat. I’m afraid you wouldn’t have had to be the most cerebral of fugitives to work out that that future was likely to involve a long stretch at Her Majesty’s pleasure, but worse was to come.
One more element for the Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate.
The Police
“It was a very British police operation. Few countries would have had such concern for Moat’s life. The team did their very best to try to take him alive, at great personal risk.”
They wanted to take him alive. Is that so rare a thing for man who had shot a copper?
Moat’s death brought to an end the biggest manhunt in recent British history. Police armed with Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles, Glock 9mm pistols, MP5 Carbines, .223 Remington rifles, M24 sniper rifles and 50,000 volt electric Taser stun guns scoured fields and woodland surrounding Rothbury. They mounted check points in and out of the town.
The Investigation
Moat was hiding in storm drains under Rothbury – under the police. Moat did not escape. He did not shoot anyone else, other than himself.
The inquiry into Moat’s death may also raise questions over the surveillance strategy of Northumbria police. Before arriving in Rothbury last Saturday, Moat visited his friend Andy Mcallister in Newcastle.
Homicide detectives spent much of Sunday interviewing Mcallister, 45, but did not keep him under close watch. At 1.30am on Monday, 5 July, Moat handed a 49-page handwritten confession to Mcallister for the police, and sought to tell the media his side of the story.
The Taser
He yelled at police after they blasted him with two Taser electric stun guns in a desperate bid to end the seven-day manhunt without loss of life.
More:
They were about two feet away from him when he pulled the trigger,’ said a police source.
‘A Taser was fired before he shot his gun, but for some reason it didn’t properly deliver the electric charge to him, possibly because it got hampered by thick clothing.
And:
Audio recordings picked up the sound of his wailing seconds before the shot – indicating he may have been zapped by a stun-gun and then pulled the trigger, possibly in an involuntary muscle spasm caused by the shock.
The Man Called Moat
He once made a child stand outside his council house holding a sign with “naughty” written on it. No advert for paedos – but the NoTW says it still “abuse”.
Moat was arrested 12 times but convicted only once (of assaulting a child).
A Heated Debate
What does this story say about Britain today? – Indy
Tabloids Lust For More Blood
RAOUL Moat’s suicide could spark a revenge war – after it emerged he might have shot himself after being jolted by two Taser stun guns…
s a shrine to the bodybuilder was set up outside his home, one close associate known only as Andy said: “This isn’t over. The police ruined Raoul’s life and, I reckon, Tasered him before he fired that gun. There’s going to be trouble.”
The Media Entertinment
People living in the immediate vicinity were confined to their homes, but, behind police cordons in Rothbury (and on the screens of those watching the live television coverage), the stand-off had become a spectacle. Some residents hung from their windows, and the village pubs were packed with people speculating on what would happen next as they stared, transfixed, at the rolling news reports.
The Victim’s Friend
Jamie Rushin, 19, Chris’s best friend who had just moved in to a flat in Gateshead with Chris, said: “I’m gutted Moat is dead. He’s taken the easy way out. He doesn’t have to live with the consequences of what he’s done. Chris and Sam’s family does, and PC Rathband’s family.
“He didn’t want to face what he’d done and a lot of questions can’t be answered now. Chris was a great guy who did nothing wrong.”
His Last Words
Times: “’I have no dad and no-one cares about me’” – Moat’s last lament”
NoTW: “Raoul Moat yelled ‘bastards’… then blew his head off”
Gazza Knew
Star: “GAZZA: I BLAME POLICE”
The story is illustrated by a picture of Paul Gascoigne crying at Sir Bobby Robson’s funeral. Gazza said he knew Moat and knew how to save him.
Pictures:
Posted: 11th, July 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink
