Thursday - May 08, 2008

gunman’s family question ‘shoot to kill’

Just how fuckin stupid are ppl getting?  Gunman? Duh ....  Man with gun shooting at ppl ...

This dickhead was taking shots at random including shooting at a woman in her back garden. So the police (after some hours) put a STOP TO UN-NECESSARY BREATHING.  But the family questions if they had to shoot the bastard.  The family need to be taken out too. Too many stupid genes there.  Geez I get so sick of this crap ...

By Gordon Rayner and Nick Allen
Last Updated: 1:25PM BST 08/05/2008
The family of the barrister shot dead during an armed siege have questioned the police’s decision to use lethal force.

Rodney Saunders suggested the five-hour stand-off in Chelsea, West London, could have been resolved peacefully without the need for marksmen to shoot his son Mark, who was holed up with a shotgun in his £2.2million flat.

( a five hour stand off?  I wouldn’t have given the bastard more then five minutes!  GOOD for the cops here.  One less Gerbil in the world. )

But police sources insisted yesterday that former Territorial Army reservist Mr Saunders, 32, left the Metropolitan Police with no choice after he repeatedly shot at neighbours and armed officers in Markham Square on Tuesday afternoon.

Rodney Saunders, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, said: “Put it this way, he didn’t endanger anyone at all to my knowledge and we can only surmise what might have happened before the whole thing started.

(no, of course not. Taking pot shots here and there isn’t a danger. No, it was his civil and human right if we can believe his dad.)”I just don’t know. You would imagine that it will come out in the fullness of time. We will want answers as to why police shot him.”

Oxford-educated Mr Saunders, who had two legally-owned shotguns, began firing at neighbours from the window of his flat following a row with his wife Elizabeth, 40, who is a barrister working at the same chambers as her husband.

Police negotiators tried for several hours to persuade him to surrender himself, firing warning shots during three separate exchanges of fire. But witnesses said Mr Saunders’s only responses were to shout “I can’t hear you” and “I’m ex-Army”.

At one point he threw a cardboard box from his window with the message “I love my wife dearly. xxx” written on it, which has been interpreted as a possible “goodbye” note to his wife and prompted speculation over whether he may have been trying to provoke police into killing him in what has become known in previous cases as “suicide by cop”.

One police source was adamant that officers had no choice but to shoot Mr Saunders, who had been drinking heavily and was clearly well supplied with ammunition.

“He was firing directly at people and police officers and into houses which had not been evacuated,” said the source. “He was a direct threat. There were attempts to engage him by negotiators but these were not successful.

“This man was out of control and we could not predict what he would have done next.”

Like other forces, the Metropolitan Police has a shoot to kill policy when dealing with an armed offender. Marksmen never try to merely wound a suspect, as the danger of them firing back when approached by police and medics could lead to others losing their lives.

A post-mortem examination today is expected to confirm that Mr Saunders was shot by one of none officers who discharged their weapons during the siege.

His mother Rosemary said she had not been aware of her son having any marital problems, but admitted he did have “issues with alcohol”.

Mrs Saunders said: “Liz and Mark’s marriage was stable. The family had a get together a couple of months ago and everything was normal.

“We are devastated and very confused by what has happened.

“Mark and Liz were a golden couple. There had been no row on Tuesday. She was at work when the seige began.

“She tried to get back into her flat to see what was going on but could’t get past the police cordon.

“"Liz was his life but his work also meant everything to him. Everything he touched he was successful in. He had a stressful job but never spoke about any undue pressures or stresses.

“Mark did have drinking issues but we are at a loss as to explain what happened.

“All we know is we’ve lost our son. What went wrong I just don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know.”

Mr Saunders, who studied law at Christ Church College, Oxford, before joining the QEB chambers in 1998, spent three years with the Honourable Artillery Company regiment of the Territorial Army between 1999 and 2002.

He had been a gun enthusiast since his school days, friends said, and is understood to have allowed police to inspect his shotguns after he and his wife bought their flat in Markham Square last September.

Mr Saunders specialised in divorce law and had worked on TV star Chris Tarrant’s divorce settlement.

http://tinyurl.com/6x566h

Posted by Drew458     on 05/08/2008 at 08:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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