82 SECONDS OF CARNAGE
Father of two hailed a hero for giving up his own life to save wife as Westminster Bridge car terrorist mowed down victims ‘like bowling pins’
‘Thrown into air like rag dolls’
AN AMERICAN tourist died saving his wife’s life in the Westminster terror attack, an inquest heard yesterday.
Kurt Cochran spotted Khalid Masood racing at them on Westminster Bridge, starting what the coroner described as ‘82 seconds of terrible drama’.
Pushing his wife Melissa to the side, the 54-year-old musician took the full force of the impact from the 4x4 vehicle and was catapulted headfirst over a wall and on to a concrete walkway 17ft below.
The father of two suffered major injuries and died minutes later. His wife, 47, received a glancing blow from the Hyundai Tucson and had serious injuries. The couple, from Utah, were in London celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary.
‘Kurt Cochran behaved with incredible heroism, pushing his wife away, without regard for his own life,’ said Dominic Adamson, who represents his widow.
The Old Bailey inquest into the deaths of the five victims in March last year heard Mr Cochran’s actions probably saved his wife’s life. As CCTV footage was played, Gareth Patterson QC, who represents three bereaved families, said: ‘Masood is heading for Kurt and Melissa. It appears she is looking the other way and doesn’t see the car swerving.
‘He appears to get sight of the oncoming car. After that his right arm goes out and pushes his wife over to his right, trying to get her out of harm’s way. By his efforts he avoided her being hit front-on. He may well have saved her life. She doesn’t go over the wall.’
Detective Constable Simon Osland said Mr Cochran took a full-frontal impact: ‘He was thrown back towards the wall and has gone over backwards.’
Grieving families left the courtroom as the appalling footage was played. The court was told that pedestrians were mown down like ‘human bowling pins’ and ‘thrown into the air like rag dolls’.
Within 30 seconds, Masood fatally injured Mr Cochran, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, on the bridge with his car. Miss Cristea, a Romanian who was on holiday with her boyfriend Andrei Burnaz, was shown being flung over a wall and into the river 41ft below. The current carried her for more than 300ft before she was spotted by a tourist boat.
She was in the water for nine minutes and never regained consciousness, dying in hospital two weeks later.
CCTV also shows Mrs Frade, who had her back to the terrorist’s car, being struck at up to 42mph.
The mother of two, a school administrator from West London, was catapulted almost 60ft and landed in a bus lane. Her head and shoulders went under a bus and she was killed instantly when its back wheel passed over her.
Mr Rhodes, a retired window cleaner from Clapham, south London, was dragged 108ft underneath the car and died from head injuries a day later.
Masood, who was born in Kent, was driving at an average speed of 31mph before he crashed into rail- ings surrounding the Palace of Westminster 30 seconds after the attack began. The 52-year-old left a trail of destruction, with dozens seriously injured.
Armed with two knives, he leapt out of the car and fatally stabbed PC Keith Palmer inside the gates of Parliament. Although unarmed, the officer stood his ground as others ran for safely. There were no armed police nearby and he was shot dead by a plain-clothes officer who had rushed to the scene.
Chief coroner Mark Lucraft QC told the court: ‘The lives of many were torn apart by 82 seconds of high and terrible drama.’
Those in court for the inquest, including Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, observed a minute’s silence for those who died.
Some 1,200 officers were deployed on the investigation – eight of them working six days a week for four months to watch all 6,000 hours of CCTV. Twelve people were arrested but no charges were laid.
Detective Superintendent John Crossley said: ‘From every inquiry we have done, we have not identified any other person involved in this and it’s my belief that Masood acted alone.’ Mr Patterson said the CCTV images showed Masood was deliberately targeting pedestrians.
He said witnesses described the ‘noise and the repeated thuds and bangs of the impact’.
Questioning Mr Crossley, he said: ‘The driver Masood, behind the wheel, would have seen and heard every impact as he drove over the bridge. And so, is it right, your assessment, when you stand back and look at the gravity of what happened, there is no getting away from the barbarity of what happened and the inhumanity of what took place?
‘This was terrorism of an indiscriminate type and whatever he thought about the values of democracy, it was those values of democracy that led police officers to try to save his life at the end of this.’
Det Supt Crossley, who led the investigation, agreed with this assessment.
Hugo Keith QC, representing the Metropolitan Police, asked the officer: ‘He had but one sole intention, which was to kill a police officer?’ Mr Crossley agreed.
The inquest continues.