Quiet calm of a hero who saved a man from suicide

Prince Charles yesterday unveiled a national police memorial in Staffordshire, which stands as a permanent tribute to police officers and staff who died in the line of duty.

The £4,5m monument and garden stands in the grounds of the National Memorial Arboretum, where the prince paid tribute to the ‘valour and sacrifice’ of officers and staff.

The tribute is designed It is designed to look like a giant door, which is slightly ajar, and represents the threshold across which police officers step every day into potential danger.

When Portsmouth PC Khurram Masood stepped out of his own front door to head in to work for another shift in the city, he had no idea what lay in store — but in the course of his working day, he emerged as a hero.

His actions, during a six-hour incident in Fratton, probably saved the life of a suicidal man, and epitomise all the qualties that we rightly admire in our police force.

He calmed the anxious man down by talking about football and family, and so defused a potentially inflammatory situation that, but for his actions, may have had a very different outcome.

And like all the best heroes, modesty is his watchword. He told The News :‘Iwon’tsayI saved a life — it’s such a big statement - but I was there at the right time and the right place.’

Assistant chief constable Ben Snuggs, who was a police negotiator for eight years, praised his colleague’s actions.

He said PC Masood went

‘above and beyond’ and ‘performed brilliantly and helped save a life’.

PC Masood is the first recipient of a congratulations coin, a new method of recognising officers in Hampshire borrowed from American law enforcement.

It is a brilliant idea, and this resourceful officer has our warm congratulations.