Don't shoot the swordsman...

This item has popped up in the local news again.
And its as weird as the original story was.

It all happened in March 2005 on the M62 - police received calls about a van that was been driven against the flow of traffic on the Westbound motorway, later reports suggested that the driver had been seen brandishing a sword inside the vehicle and this is backed up by the fact that Humberside Police sent an armed response vehicle to the scene.

By the time they arrived the van had collided head on with an oncoming car and the van driver, later identified as 26 year old Simon Murden was seen by police trying to break his way into the cab of a tanker which had stopped at the scene, he was armed with a two foot long sword and threatened the police officers with it when they approached him.

As he continued to approach the armed police officers they fired two baton (plastic bullet) rounds at him and when he still refused to stop they shot and killed him with a regular firearm.

And that was that.

The young man in question helped his father run a shop in Beverley which sold Fair Trade Goods and had worked in Africa for various christian charities, the whole family were said to be committed christians who had dedicated their lives to assisting in poverty stricken parts of the world - the tragic death of Simon Murden was incomprehensible and could only be written off in laymans terms as "he finally flipped, went crazy, lost control of his senses" and other such non-medical terms for someone who was obviously suffering from a mental illness on the day of his death.

Not that the police could do anything else, they were in an unenviable situation, confronted by a man wielding a sword who had just driven several miles the wrong way down a motorway with no regard for his or other peoples lives, who wouldn't stop when challenged, even when hit by plastic rounds, and seemed determined to approach the petrol station that the incident took place adjacent to in order to either take shelter, take hostages or hijack a vehicle - they shot him dead, they had no other choice - it was the first time in their history that Humberside Police had ever shot and killed anyone - take note anyone reading from the USA !

And so yesterday the Director of Public Prosecutions after a long and detailed review of the evidence rightly determined that no charges should be made against the two armed police officers involved - its something that we have to do in this country, only certain well trained officers are armed with guns and they can only discharge them under orders from a senior officer under very specific circumstances.

Whenever anyone is shot by one of these police officers there has to be a long and detailed independant enquiry to ensure that the officer concerned did not trangress any of the rules and regulations, if he/she did then he/she could find themselves on the end of a murder charge - I know several friends, including family members who have done firearms training in the police and then withdrawn from the armed section, not due to the risk to their person from lunatic gunmen but the risk to their own mental health from the paper trails involved every day that they are on firearms duty - and the potential career-ending under-pressure incorrect decision that they may make one day.

But of course the family cannot be pacified by this conclusion, to them their son and brother was killed by armed police officer in an act that to them was totally out of character, its not suprising that they cannot accept that he was behaving as he was, anyone else would be the same, but their press release yesterday which speaks of private high court action against the police is misguided and sensationalist ;-

"It is with unbelievable shock and astonishment that our family and friends have responded to the news that no criminal charges will be brought against the police for the terrible and untimely death of Simon...
"Our much loved, thoughtful, gentle son and brother deserves truth, accountability and justice. He did not deserve such a shocking death at the hands of the police."

Well I'm sorry Murden family, but anyone who walks towards armed police wielding a sword and receives the benefit of two warning shots of rounds designed to stop and not kill, but who then continues to threaten those officers and the general public, simply deserves to be brought to ground with conventional rounds.

And someone should really explain that to them before they spend all of their money on a futile court case.