The first police officer to open fire on the London Bridge terrorist, Usman Khan, spoke about when he came face to face with the assailant and was told: ‘I have a bomb “.
The officer, known by the code WX99, said during an investigation that he initially believed the suspect was unarmed as he lay on the sidewalk and instigated the officer to kill him.
He said, “At first I thought you were selfish ****, you want to be killed and you want me to do it.”
Khan pictured at Bank Station in London before the attack
He also believed that Khan might be mentally ill and could be accused of shooting an innocent man.
He then checked that the 28-year-old had no hidden explosives and found a belt, copper wire, containers and what looked like white plasticine.
Then, he said, all he could think of was getting the men attacking Khan away so he could shoot the attacker.
He told the inquest: “I thought the bomb was 100% real and he would detonate it and we were all going to die.”
He said as soon as the last of Khan’s forwards was cleared he shot twice. On the first blow Khan relaxed and on the second he collapsed. “I assumed I killed him.
But he hadn’t, and Khan kept moving, lifting his arms up and down and after eight minutes tried to sit up.
Another officer, who fired 10 bullets at Khan, said he wanted to “neutralize” him because he appeared to be wearing a suicide vest.
The officer told the inquest into Khan’s death that he believed he and his colleagues would never see their families again after spotting what he believed to be an improvised explosive device.
He said he fired several shots 50 meters from Khan.
“To me, it seemed viable and real,” he said.
“To be honest, I didn’t think I was going home.”
Usman Khan attacked people in the fishmongers’ hall before being chased to London Bridge
The…
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-06-03 12:31:00
