Arrested after stand-off with armed police, suspect in the mobility scooter murder case
A Suspect in the stabbing of a pensioner on his mobility scooter was arrested by armed police yesterday.
officers swooped on Lee Byer, 44, hours after releasing a CCTV image of him apparently running away from the scene wielding a knife.
In the early hours of yesterday, officers smashed in the door of Byer’s west London home using a battering ram.
Neighbours said there was a 30-minute standoff as Byer claimed he was afraid of their police dog. He was handcuffed shortly after 2am.
Last night Byer was being quizzed over the killing of 87-year- old grandfather Thomas o’Halloran, who was stabbed in broad daylight in Greenford, west London, on Tuesday.
The retired engineer had been busking with his accordion outside a Tesco in Perivale to raise money for ukraine, and was savagely ambushed as he drove his mobility scooter along a path next to the A40, which was teeming with traffic. The senseless killing of a defenceless pensioner has shocked the nation and led to demands for a crackdown on the crimewave on Britain’s streets.
Scotland yard launched a manhunt on Wednesday after obtaining the dramatic CCTV image of the fleeing suspect.
residents of nearby Allenby road were woken at 1.30am as police smashed down the front door of jobless Byer’s semidetached house.
A neighbour said: ‘I was asleep when I was woken by a lot of loud noise. I looked through the curtain and there was about six armed police outside the house, all armed. Two of them were pointing lasers at the house windows. The police were shouting at him to come out. It took over half an hour for him to come out. He came to the front door and the police shouted, “Down on your knees”.
‘They made him lie down and then went to handcuff him. The police were saying, “Just relax”.’
Another resident said: ‘He just wouldn’t come out. He kept saying, “No, there’s a dog”. The police said, “The dog isn’t even barking, just come out”.’ officers had reconnoitred the address for six hours before the night raid. Armed police took up positions on side streets either side of the address, and then raided it on foot so there was no chance of Byer hearing them coming.
A witness told the Daily Mail: ‘The police were scouting out the address from 7.30pm. They must have been watching to see if he was definitely in. Then they must have got their orders and the armed police van came in at around 1.30am.’
The neighbour, who recognised Byer, added: ‘I have seen him about at the shops, and sometimes in Greenford at Iceland and Tesco. I didn’t think he was a noisy guy. He was quite quiet. If I saw him he would just nod and keep his head down.’ Neighbours and acquaintances of Byer, born in Hammersmith, were shocked by his arrest.
An ex-partner, who did not want to be named, said she was ‘horrified’, adding: ‘I think it is out of character. It’s not normal. I feel awful for that family.’
Mr o’Halloran was described by a friend as ‘the most cheerful, jolly person I’ve ever known’.
yesterday in ennistymon, County Clare, where Mr o’Halloran grew up, nephew Thomas said the family were trying to ‘come to terms with the tragic senseless loss’. In the late 1940s, Mr o’Halloran worked in a shop in the town fixing radios and clocks, and moved to London age 16 to seek a better life.
He was a regular outside Tesco, playing his beloved accordion, with his mobility scooter sporting a charity collection box sprayed with yellow paint to represent the ukrainian flag.
After the stabbing shortly before 4pm on Tuesday, Mr o’Halloran managed to drive his scooter about 75 yards to beg for help from passers-by, before succumbing to his wounds.
‘If I saw him he would keep his head down’
UP pops inept London Mayor Sadiq Khan on social media to advise the public on how to stay safe in thunderstorms.
Seek shelter indoors, he writes gravely, and if in a field, crouch down.
As violence engulfs the capital, wouldn’t an anxious public rather know how to stay safe on Mr Khan’s streets?
How old men on mobility scooters, like Thomas O’Halloran, can go about their lives without being stabbed to death? How the rising tide of gun and knife crime happening on Mr Khan’s watch can be turned?
That he has no answers speaks volumes about his warped priorities and appalling leadership. The mayor and police should heed ex-Met commissioner Lord Stevens.
Protecting the communities they are meant to serve, he says, means ditching virtue-signalling wokery and returning to ‘hard- edged basics’: Cracking down on crime by catching and convicting culprits.
Policing the streets in a meaningful way and keeping people safe would be an appropriate legacy from Mr O’Halloran’s senseless killing.