A POLICE officer, who shot dead the convicted terrorist who went into a stabbing rampage in Streatham last year, has said he feared for his life and colleagues' safety when he confronted the attacker on a south London street, stated media reports on Wednesday (11).
Describing the split-second decision to open fire on the Streatham terror attacker in a busy shopping street, the officer, referred to only as BX75, told an inquest that he feared that Sudesh Amman was going to stab and kill him when he saw him running with a knife in his hand.
The 20-year-old convicted terrorist from Queensbury, north London, had grabbed a 20cm kitchen blade from the display of the Low Price hardware store and stabbed two passers-by in the attack on Feb 2 last year. He was released from Belmarsh prison 10 days earlier after serving half of a 40-month sentence for obtaining and distributing terrorist material and was put under surveillance.
Amman was watched by nine officers on the day when BX75 heard a colleague say over the radio: "He's stabbing people."
The officer also told the inquest that he was worried for the safety of his colleague who was armed only with a Taser and feared it might not work because Amman was heavily clothed at the time.
"I was in fear of his life and I wanted to protect members of the public. I immediately drew my Glock pistol from my hip, I just pulled up my jacket and grabbed it," he said.
"He had a large butcher's knife, silver bladed at least eight inches long. He held it up in front of him as he was running. It wasn't hidden in any way shape or form," he said.
"I saw him, he saw me, and I am 100 per cen confident we locked eyes. I thought he was going to stab me and kill me or certainly very seriously injure me.
"I would have had my pistol in a double-handled grip. I could see Mr Amman run towards me, I stopped and had a split second to fire a shot at Mr Amman,” the officer told the inquest.
The shot which BX75 fired missed so he fired another one because he thought that Amman was going to either stab him or his colleague or other members of the public, reports said.
"I was convinced he was making a decision who to attack there and then," he said. "I'd like to think I said something to him along the lines of 'stop police, drop the knife' - but I have no recollection.
"He was so close to me with the knife that I had immediate fear for my life. I fired a shot at his chest, a single shot."
"Mr Amman remained standing where he was, I saw no visible reaction from him, nothing at all, the threat was still there, he was still exactly the same threat to me as before so I fired a second shot, then reassessed again and he started to fall, he fell to the floor," said BX75.
Another officer, BX87, told the inquest he had intended to give Amman first aid, as he was trained to do, but as he kicked the knife away he heard his colleague shout about the potential suicide vest.
The officer backed off, put a mask and police cap on, and started to get the members of the public in shop fronts and cars to move away before he was relieved by uniformed armed officers, reports said.
The inquest continues.
