I’ll never forget her screams
Officer who saved colleague from speeding car tells court: ‘I thought we were both dead’
A POLICE officer who saved a colleague from being struck by a speeding car yesterday told a court he will remember her screams for the rest of his life.
PC Robert Fitzsimmons, 32, said he thought he and Deborah Lawson were going to die when the vehicle sped towards them last October.
The officer said he and PC Lawson had tried to stop the man driving the car away. But the court heard how the driver – who is said to be Ryan Gilmour, 25 – refused to co-operate with the police and this caused PC Fitzsimmons to use his PAVA spray, which is designed to incapacitate.
The policeman told the court that he managed to hit Gilmour and a rear- seat passenger – who is allegedly David McLean, 31 – with the liquid.
However, the spray had no effect and the car started to reverse. PC Fitzsimmons said he and PC Lawson were holding onto the car and Gilmour ignored shouts to stop.
The constable said that his colleague fell to the ground as the 4x4 kept reversing.
He said: ‘I remember it all, it’s very vivid. Her head was an inch or two from the wheel.
‘To this day, I will never know why her head never went under the car.
‘It’s the most scared I have ever been. PC Lawson’s screams will live with me for the rest of my life. I thought we were both dead.’
PC Fitzsimmons was giving evidence on the third day of proceedings against Gilmour and McLean at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The two men deny attempting to murder the officers in Glasgow’s Knightswood on October 23 last year. They have also pleaded not guilty to other charges.
PC Fitzsimmons told the court that he and his colleague had been sent to Banner Drive to investigate a disturbance.
He said they became suspicious of a 4x4 vehicle that was moving slowly along the road.
The witness said his colleague got out to speak to the car’s occupants and he followed behind her.
Gilmour was the driver and McLean was sitting in the rear, he said, adding that Gilmour looked to be ‘under the influence of a substance’. The two officers went to the doors of the vehicle. The policeman said that Gilmour was trying to put the car into gear, which would allow it to move away. McLean was also trying to put the car into gear.
PC Fitzsimmons said that he and his colleague tried to stop them.
The court heard that PC Fitzsimmons managed to strike the two men with his PAVA spray but it had no effect on them and the car started to move backwards.
The constable said that after the car almost ran over the head of PC Lawson, it started to come forwards in the direction of his colleague.
He said: ‘I heard the engine of the car revving loudly. I knew it was going to go. I shouted, “Debbie!” I screamed, “Debbie!”
‘As I did, she screamed. It wasn’t a scream of pain. She was screaming because she thought she was going to be hit.’
The vehicle then left the scene, he said. The court heard that PC Fitzsimmons later collapsed and needed medical treatment for knee, elbow and neck pain.
He is now working in an administrative position in Police Scotland and is not doing front-line duties.
McLean and Gilmour are alleged to have attempted to murder the officers by reversing a Nissan car towards them and repeatedly hitting them with the vehicle.
They also deny further charges including wilfully setting fire to the vehicle and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The trial, before judge Lord Summers, continues.
‘The most scared I have been’