Wild West Yorkshire
Gunman in stand-off with officer in suburban street
IT could be a tense scene from Line of Duty. But this confrontation between a gunman and a police officer played out in real life in front of shocked witnesses in a residential street.
Passers-by recorded the mid-morning Mexican stand- off on their phones as the man appeared to point a handgun at the policeman.
A taser was fired to take the gunman down, police said, and footage showed him later lying in the road, surrounded by police and being Threat: Man points ‘handgun’ at officer pinned down, disarmed and arrested. Shouts of ‘stay down’, ‘drop it’ and ‘put that away now’ can be heard on the video clip – although it is unclear whom they came from.
It is not known what triggered the incident, which ended without any injuries. West Yorkshire Police said they received a report of a man with ‘what appeared to be a handgun’ in the Kirkstall area of Leeds on Tuesday.
Armed officers were sent to the area and a 48-year- old man was detained shortly after 11am by a firearms officer using a taser.
The police spokesman said: ‘He was arrested on suspicion of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. He remains in custody. A gas-powered BB gun was recovered at the scene.’
The suburb of Kirkstall is two miles north west of Leeds city centre and is popular with families and pensioners, as well as students at the nearby universities.