Crossbow yob who shot policeman gets 8 years
A THUG who shot a policeman with a crossbow while allegedly struggling to come to terms with his father’s death has been jailed for eight years.
Christopher Hutchison shot Sergeant Stuart Morrison as armed officers turned up at his home after the 37-year-old was seen with the weapon.
Sgt Morrison escaped without serious injury but Hutchison then set fire to his own home in Blantyre, Lanarkshire.
A judge heard Hutchison had been in ‘self-destruct mode’ following the death of his father from cancer two days earlier.
He was jailed after admitting assault, culpable and reckless conduct and wilful fire-raising and will be supervised in the community for a further four years after release. Passing sentence at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Lady Rae told Hutchison that his crimes put the public and the emergency services at ‘serious risk of injury, if not death’.
She said: ‘The officers were there to merely exercise their proper authority to arrest you in connection with an unrelated matter but you held them at bay for about four hours in what I would describe as siege conditions.
‘Local schools were placed on lockdown for safety reasons.
‘You injured one officer, fortunately not seriously, but it was obvious you did not care whom you might injure.’
It emerged Hutchison already had a lengthy criminal past with a recent jail term for hurling items including heaters and a chest of drawers at the police.
The court heard that police were initially called to Hutchison’s home on the morning of October 24 following reports of a disturbance.
Sgt Morrison was 30ft away when Hutchison discharged the crossbow. The bolt went through a closed door and struck the officer, but only broke skin on his arm.
A police negotiator was then called to try and calm Hutchison. His girlfriend was in the house but he continued to fire the crossbow out of a window until saying he had ‘run out of bolts’. Hutchison then yelled his ‘neighbours better be out’ as he had petrol and was going to set fire to his house, torching curtains and a bed.
Euan Dow, defending, said Hutchison’s father had died two days before the crimes: ‘He did not care if he lived or died himself and appeared hellbent in provoking the firearms officers.’
Hutchison now wanted to ‘express his apologies’ for shooting Sgt Morrison.