COP KILLING: 2ND ARREST
Man is held for allegedly supplying gun as suspect is named
RAIDED Police cars outside farmhouse
A SECOND man has been arrested in connection with the death of Sergeant Matt Ratana.
A man was held in Norwich at 2am yesterday on suspicion of supplying a gun linked to his shooting at a Croydon custody suite in the early hours of Friday.
The 23-year-old suspect thought to have carried out the shooting itself was named by the BBC as Louis De Zoysa, from Norbury, South London.
Police have been unable to speak to him because he is critically ill in hospital, having reportedly turned the gun on himself after shooting Sgt Ratana.
Prince Charles described the incident as “heartbreaking” as he led tributes to fallen officers yesterday.
De Zoysa is said to be a former
TRIBUTES The Prince of Wales Catholic churchgoer and one of five children from a middle class family.
A neighbour said: “I saw Louis being stopped and searched by the police a couple of months ago at the top of the road. They were searching him really thoroughly from head to toe.
“He has always seemed a bit different.”
Another said: “The family have lived here 25 to 30 years.
“I woke up on Friday morning and saw the whole road was filled with police vans. They were all still here until about midday yesterday and since then police have been guarding the house, going in and out.
“The dad is called Channa and is from Sri Lanka. He is self employed and drives a big red van. The mum is called Elizabeth and is an interpreter.
“She’s English. They have five children aged between about 15 and 25.
“There are three boys and two girls and they keep themselves to themselves.”
It also emerged armed police raided a farmhouse
I could make out police with guns, some in military uniforms NEIGHBOUR ON POLICE RAIDING A FARMHOUSE
in Surrey on Saturday morning in connection with Sgt Ratana’s death.
Officers are understood to have blown a door off. A neighbour said: “There was a huge explosion and I looked out my window
and saw that there must have been 20 police cars and vans bumper to bumper lining the private road towards the farmhou farmhouse next door. I could make out police with guns. Some had a military-style uniform on.”
One localocal claimed to have “seen people coming and going from the farm over the last year”, addinadding that a “light-skinned Asian or mixed race” man in his early 20s had been a regular visitor over the past few weeks.
The neighbour added: “There’d be a steady stream of white vans late at night. The gates would be chained shut and concrete blocks placed in front to stop anyone coming in.”
Prince Charles led tributes to fallen officers on National Police Memorial Day yesterday.
He said: “The dreadful incident in Croydon on Friday is the latest heartbreaking evidence of the risks faced by our officers daily. I would like to send my deepest sympathy to families of each of these officers who have given their lives. These are losses we can never replace, sacrifices we can never repay.”
Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Priti Patel laid wreaths at the National Police Memorial in Central London.
Sgt Ratana, 54, originally from New Zealand, is the eighth police officer in the UK to be shot dead in the past 20 years.
Dame Cressida said: “If some good can come out of this terrible incident... it would be that more people can understand a little bit about the challenges of police work and to see us police as who we are – human beings, going to
GRIEF Members of East Grinstead rugby club
FLOWERS Tributes left at custody suite work to help people, to support people and to protect people. Matt was the epitome of that.”
John Apter, of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “Policing comes with a huge amount of risk and this is at the forefront of our minds, even more so following the devastating news on Friday.”
Sgt Ratana’s cousin Adrian Rurawhe, a Labour MP in New Zealand, also paid tribute.
He said: “One thing that’s been really comforting is to hear the stories from friends and colleagues in the UK. He took the values that are important to us and was still carrying them out halfway around the world.”
He added that his cousin had been very happy with partner Sue Bushby, who he lived with in Worthing, West Sussex.