‘Mad bull’ axeman in frenzied attack on policewoman

A POLICEWOMAN has suffered life-changing injuries in a ferocious attack by an axeman.

She was struck repeatedly by the man, described as a bodybuilder behaving ‘like a mad bull’.

Her life may have been saved by a bystander who dragged her away from the scene by her body armour.

The attacker swung his axe up to eight times as the young officer tried to defend herself – leaving her with a fractured skull, broken leg, smashed ankle and a finger almost severed

He also assaulted her male colleague before fleeing to a nearby supermarket where he went on the rampage in front of terrified shoppers, hurling cans and bottles around.

Last night a man named locally as 36-year-old Nathan Sumner was being held by South Yorkshire Police on suspicion of attempted murder.

Three more officers were hurt – none seriously – when they tried to arrest the attacker at the Co-op store and were struck by a police baton he had grabbed.

An attempt to stop the man Arrested: Nathan Sumner with a gas spray was ineffective and he was eventually arrested by up to ten officers when a Taser was fired at him.

The female officer, who has not been named but is unmarried and has ten years’ experience, was due to undergo surgery yesterday and was said to be in good spirits.

The incident happened at around 7.50pm on Wednesday when the policewoman and her colleague were sent to deal with a domestic incident at a block of flats in the Gleadless Valley area of Sheffield. Simon Ellis, 46, the bystander who intervened, said he saw the officers running up the stairs followed by shouting.

He said a young woman then ran towards him from the stairwell in an emotional state.

‘She said her boyfriend was going mental and was seeing aliens and was trying to kill the two police officers I had just seen running up the stairs.

‘The young lady dived in my house for refuge and as she did so the lady police officer came half-staggering, half-falling, out of the stairwell.

‘She was followed by this big bloke, a bodybuilder who was chopping at her with an axe.’

Another neighbour looking on from a bedroom told Mr Ellis ‘you’ve got to go and help her, he’ll kill her’.

Mr Ellis courageously went over to see what he could do and was about 20ft away when the officer shouted: ‘He’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me. Get him off me.’

Mr Ellis said she was lying half on the ground, holding her baton up with one hand to defend herself. He added: ‘It was at least half a dozen to eight swings of the axe.

‘He wasn’t holding back at all. It was a full-blooded, frenzied attack.

‘He actually was measuring his blows. He even waited for her to move her arms so he could get another chop in.’

Mr Ellis, who was a St John Ambulance worker at the Hillsborough disaster, said he caught the eye of the attacker who ran off after the male officer shouted to distract the axeman ‘as you would at a mad bull’.

Unable to carry the policewoman to safety, Mr Ellis dragged her to his nearby home. ‘She said “drag me, drag me” because she thought he was going to kill her. Blood was pouring out everywhere.’

Her colleague was not struck by the axe and escaped serious injury. The attacker ran 150 yards to the Co-op store where more police confronted him.

Detective Chief Superintendent David Hartley praised the ‘incredible bravery’ of his officers and the public who intervened. He refused to comment on whether the suspect had a history of mental health problems.

‘He’s going to kill me’