Officer shot dead at custody centre
A METROPOLITAN Police officer who was shot dead at a south London custody suite was a “long-serving sergeant”, Met Commissioner Cressida Dick has said.
The victim died in hospital after the gunman, who was being detained, opened fire at Croydon custody centre in south London during the early hours of yesterday.
The 23-year-old murder suspect, who is believed to have shot himself, is in a critical condition in hospital.
Scotland Yard said no police firearms were fired during the incident at around 2.15am.
A murder probe has been launched and investigators from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog are on the scene to establish how the gun got into the custody suite.
Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said: “This morning we learnt of the shocking death of a much-loved colleague, a long-serving sergeant in the Metropolitan Police who was working last night in our Croydon custody suite.
“I have visited and spoken to our officer’s partner together with other colleagues. We are giving her the best support we can.”
She added: “Early indications are that the suspect shot himself. This has not yet been established as fact. The man remains in a critical condition in hospital.
“I understand that there is considerable interest in the identity of the officer but we have not yet been able to inform all of his close family.”
Leroy Logan, a former Met superintendent, said there were questions to be answered around the circumstances which led to the shooting.
“How did that person come to be in the station, whether it’s in the yard or the building itself, and be able to produce a weapon, whether it’s on them at the time?” he told BBC News.
“It depends on the calibre of the weapon, because obviously if it’s a small weapon and it can be easily in that person’s clothing, then obviously it brings another question on how thoroughly that person was searched, if at all.
“Those are the things the department for professional standards will look at and the IOPC as well as the investigating officers who will have to look at this thing thoroughly.”
The officer is thought to be the first to be killed in a shooting in the line of duty since Pcs Fiona Bone, 32, and Nicola Hughes, 23, in September 2012.
They were murdered by Dale Cregan in a gun and grenade attack while responding to a report of a burglary in Greater Manchester.
The Met sergeant is the 17th from the force to be killed by a firearm since the end of the Second World War, according to the National Police Memorial roll of honour.
Unarmed Pc Keith Palmer, who was stabbed in March 2017 by terrorist Khalid Masood during the Westminster Bridge attack, was the last Met officer to be killed in the line of duty.