Police response to fatal stabbings delayed as they ‘risk assessed it’
Officers took 20 minutes to attend scene where ex-commando murdered couple in parking dispute
ARMED police were delayed in responding to a stabbing for 20 minutes because a risk assessment was being carried out, it has emerged, as a former soldier was convicted of murdering his neighbours.
Collin Reeves was found guilty of killing Stephen Chapple, 36, and his wife Jennifer, 33, following a long-running parking dispute.
On the night of the murders, the 35-year-old climbed over his garden fence and launched a frenzied attack on the couple while their two children slept upstairs at their Somerset home.
Reeves, a former engineer commando, then returned home and called 999, telling the operator: “I went round with a knife, I’ve stabbed both of them.”
Despite the gravity of the crime, armed officers from Avon and Somerset Police arrived in “around 20 minutes” because they needed to carry out a risk assessment, a senior investigating officer said.
“People might say that’s a long time but obviously we need to risk assess it,” Det Insp Neil Meade said.
“If someone’s phoned up saying they just stabbed somebody obviously our primary aim is to preserve life. But we’ve also got to risk assess it and see what threat there is to officers that are attending and that’s why the armed officers attended in the first instance.”
Police response times have been increasing over the years, with the average wait jumping from under 6.5 minutes in 2011 to 12.5 minutes in 2018.
There is no nationwide guidance on the issue, but some forces have now set their own targets of under 15 minutes for a critical emergency.
The murder of the Chapples followed months of tension between the two families which culminated in the night of Nov 21 2020.
They were originally “quite good friends”, detectives said, but after Mrs Chapple passed her driving test and the family bought a second car, relations started to sour.
In the months leading up to the attacks, Mr and Mrs Chapple reported Reeves’ alarming behaviour to the police on two occasions. On both occasions Reeves accosted the couple outside their home as they parked, telling them “you can’t park there” and hurling abuse at Mrs Chapple.
“[The families] fell out and things seemed to calm down a bit. I think there was a bit of tension but certainly nothing that anybody could have perceived would have escalated to what it did,” Det Insp Meade said.
Mrs Chapple’s extra vehicle had made it “slightly more difficult” for Reeves to park in his space at the development built in 2015 in Norton Fitzwarren, near Taunton. The builders responded to the concerns of both parties and made changes to allow Reeves to park his car more easily, but this did not help neighbourly relations.
Reeves grabbed a dagger he received after leaving the British Army and killed the couple after he was told by his wife that she “couldn’t put up with him anymore”. Seconds later, CCTV picked up the Chapples’ screams while Reeves could be heard shouting “die you f------, die”.
Reeves, who was convicted of murder yesterday, will be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday.
He admitted killing the pair but denied murder, saying he was severely depressed after his tours in Afghanistan. But psychiatrists described his depression as “moderate” and “mild”.
A statement from Mr and Mrs Chapple’s family said: “No verdict will bring back our beautiful Jennifer and Stephen. We will now focus on Jennifer and Stephen’s beautiful boys helping them to live the life that Jennifer and Stephen would have wished for them.”