Commend him! Judge hails cop who shot dead siege knifeman
A POLICE marksman who shot dead a man threatening his ex-girlfriend at knifepoint should be “commended rather than criticised”, a judge said yesterday as he threw out a claim for damages against the police force.
Dean Joseph, 40, was killed by firearms officer PC Stuart Brown during a siege at the home of Joseph’s former love Julie Moyses, in September 2014.
Police insisted the officer was right to fire at a point when he genuinely believed Joseph was about to kill his terrified ex with a knife.
At an inquest in 2015, Ms Moyses told how Joseph smashed his way in through her bedroom window, screaming: “You’re going to get it tonight ***** .” He was already subject to a non-molestation order.
Mother-of-two Ms Moyses, 54, had told the inquest frightening details about the 90-minute ordeal.
The death led to a damages claim by Joseph’s family against Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick at Central London County Court.
But, rejecting the claim yesterday, Judge Alan Saggerson hit out at the “utterly warped” allegations made against the innocent officer.
He said: “There is no room for doubt that PC Brown saved Ms Moyses’ life.
“His professionalism, steadfastness and judgment in the most extreme circumstances calls for commendation rather than criticism.”
The court heard PC Brown had his G36 rifle trained on Joseph for about 30 minutes as the dangerous standoff continued at Ms Moyses’s flat in Islington, north London.
She was “very distressed and pleading for her life” and knife-wielding Joseph became more aggressive as the drama progressed, said the judge. PC Brown told the court he pulled the trigger twice when Joseph made a sudden lunge towards Ms Moyses.
But lawyers for Joseph’s family argued that the shooting was unnecessary and accused PC Brown of not telling the truth about what happened.
They also alleged shortcomings in the force’s planning of the police operation and in the subsequent investigation into the death.
Judge Saggerson said the challenges to PC Brown’s integrity were “without justification or adequate foundation and are to be deplored”.
He continued: “The fatal shooting of Dean Joseph has, in my judgment, been proven to have been absolutely necessary, justified and proportionate in these extremely difficult, dangerous and volatile circumstances.
“The officers, and in particular PC Brown, honestly and genuinely believed that Mr Joseph was within a second or two of stabbing Ms Moyses in the throat, cutting her throat or stabbing her in the upper torso.
“The imminent threat did not change after the first, apparently ineffective, shot.
“PC Brown had no other option open to him but to shoot on each of the two occasions in issue, and to shoot in circumstances where there was a real risk of a fatality, without warning.
“Had he not done so, the only result would have been the, probably fatal, stabbing or cutting of the throat of Ms Moyses.”
The case was brought to court by Joseph’s half-sister, Susan Joseph, and his brother Russell Coburn, on behalf of his estate.