London Bridge attackers were ‘lawfully killed’ inquest finds
● Jury rules three men shot dead by police had ignored clear warnings
A jury has concluded the London Bridge terrorists, who killed eight people and injured 48 others, were lawfully shot dead by police.
Khu ram Butt ,27, R ac hid Redoua ne ,30, and Yo us sef Zaghba,22, mowed down pedestrian son the bridge before stabbing random members of the public around Borough Market on the evening of 3 June 2017.
They were armed with ceramic knives and had fake suicide belts strapped around their waists during the marauding attack. The rampage was halted after less than ten minutes when the attackers confronted three armed police on Stoney Street.
The Old Bailey heard the officers shouting warnings and opened fire as Butt, Redouane and Zaghba came at them.
In the hail of bullets, a man in the nearby Wheatsheaf pub was hit by a stray round, but survived.
Fearing Butt and Redouane could still detonate explosive devices as they lay injured, the police officers shot at them again, jurors were told.
A bomb disposal expert told the court he only realised the suicide belts were fake after he cut them off the dead bodies and held them up.
Pc Sam Balfour, 25, and Pc Bartek Tchorzewski, 36, were among unarmed officers who tracked the attackers through Borough Market.
Pc Tchorzewski said: “We were just thinking about stopping them. Assume the worst and you try to think what you may encounter and what we will do.
“But to be honest nothing can prepare you for that, no briefings.”
Jurors deliberated for threeand-a-half hours yesterday to conclude that all three attackers were law fully killed by police after they “ignored clear warning shouts”.
Chief coroner Mark Lucraft QC had directed them that was the only “safe” conclusion in the circumstances.
He praised the actions of the armed officers and said nothing less than “lethal force” had been appropriate.
He told jurors: “You may well agree they acted with courage and they only used such force as was necessary.”
In a narrative conclusion, the jury found the attackers ran at officers with knives “ignoring clear warning shouts”.
Redoua ne and Butt were shot by officers who “feared for their lives” while Zaghba got within“very close range” of another officer who shot him in defence of himself and others, the jury found.
After falling to the ground, the attackers were covered by City of London and Metropolitan Police officers who saw what they believed were explosive devices on them.
Butt and Redoua ne were observed making “significant movements ”, further warnings were given and they were shot again over fears they would detonate the devices leading to “loss of life”, the jury concluded.