NEW TERROR WITNESS: ‘I SCREAMED AT POLICE TO SHOOT KNIFEMAN’
THE inquiry into the Westminster attack faces questions over claims the murdered policeman may have inadvertently put himself in danger by helping bystanders take refuge in Parliament.
Tourists say an officer beckoned them through a barrier before Khalid Masood followed and killed PC Keith Palmer.
Following Wednesday’s incident, the Carriage Gates entrance could now be placed behind a security perimeter that would extend into Parliament Square.
The dramatic account of the attack, from retired US surgeon Jay Morris, came as:
Scotland Yard revealed that the full atrocity was over in 82 seconds;
Masood’s partner Rohey Hydara, 39, was released without charge;
It was revealed that the killer had links to notorious British Islamist group Al-Muhajiroun;
The Met refused to say where PC Palmer, who was wearing an anti-stab vest, was wounded.
Police installed long lines of barriers, including yellow arches to control pedestrian access, on roads around Buckingham Palace, saying that an existing plan to protect Changing of the Guard ceremonies had been brought forward.
Dr Morris, wife Jilan Liu and her teenage niece Zoe, who are on holiday in Britain, are believed to be the closest witnesses to PC Palmer’s killing.
Hospital consultant Dr Liu and Zoe were ushered inside the Commons gate by a policeman as they ran from Masood, but Masood followed them in and killed PC Palmer.
Dr Morris, who was nearby, said he was shocked no armed police came to PC Palmer’s rescue, and shouted: ‘Shoot the f ***** !’
He said there had been a delay before Masood was shot dead, and he believes the policeman who tried to rescue his wife and her niece was PC Palmer.
He said: ‘It was more probably him than not.’
His wife and her niece agreed, though all three said they could not be certain.
Another policeman, who has not been identified, was also on duty at the gate but Dr Morris says they did not see a second officer. Dr Liu said the gate ‘opened up to allow us in’.
Asked if she believed the PC was protecting them without realising he was endangering himself, she said: ‘Exactly. He waved us in.’ Zoe added: ‘He said, “Come in.”’
In footage of the scene from moments after PC Palmer’s killing, crowds run from Masood as a man cries out: ‘There’s a bloke with a gun!’ Three shots then ring out.
Yesterday, hero MP Tobias Ellwood, who defied danger to help PC Palmer, said he was ‘heartbroken’ he could not do more for the policeman.
Speaking for the first time since he was made a Privy Counsellor to mark his heroism, the Foreign Office Minister said he was ‘deeply humbled’ by messages he had received in the past few days.
On Friday, Amber Rudd asked MPs to tell the Home Office about any rises in hate crimes or community tension since Wednesday’s ‘awful events’.