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Suspect was handcuffed in custody – but somehow he pulled out a gun and shot Matt Ratana

Police officers pay their respects at the custody centre where a fellow officer was shot dead - Reuters
Police officers pay their respects at the custody centre where a fellow officer was shot dead - Reuters

The suspect was seated in the holding area of the Croydon Custody Centre, his hands cuffed behind his back. Then the shooting started. Somehow, the suspect had pulled a gun from his trousers and started shooting at the officers trying to search him.

One officer – Sgt Matt Ratana – would be killed in the mayhem while the gunman remained critical in hospital having fired a bullet into his own neck.

Forty minutes earlier, the man, aged 23, had been arrested for intent to supply class B drugs and possession of ammunition. Police had found bullets at the scene but no trace, after a cursory search, of any weapon to fire them.

They approached him with a metal detector but at just after 2.15am yesterday, the prisoner, with his arms behind his back, pulled out a revolver hidden down his trousers and fired from between his legs.

At least one bullet shot Sgt Ratana in the chest, killing the duty sergeant. He was close to retirement after almost 30 years’ service.

Sgt Matt Ratana, the police officer shot at Croydon Custody Centre - East Grinstead Rugby Football Club
Sgt Matt Ratana, the police officer shot at Croydon Custody Centre - East Grinstead Rugby Football Club

It was a “fluke shot”, a senior police source said last night, still uncomprehending of how the officer, a “gentle giant” hugely popular with colleagues, had been killed.

Last night the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the police watchdog, issued a statement giving details of its preliminary investigations, after studying CCTV from the custody centre and body-worn camera footage taken from officers present.

“What we have established,” said Sal Naseem, the IOPC’s regional director, “is that the man was handcuffed to the rear before being transported to Croydon Custody Suite in a police vehicle where he was escorted into the building.

He remained handcuffed to the rear and seated in a holding area in the custody suite. His handcuffs remained in place while officers prepared to search him using a metal detector.

Read more: 'Matt was selfless beyond measure. A giant of a man with a giant heart'

“It is at the point that shots were fired resulting in the fatal injuries to the officer and critical injuries to the man. A non-police issue firearm, which appears to be a revolver has been recovered from the scene. Further ballistic work will be required.”

Sgt Ratana, in charge of the custody suite on the night shift, had been checking on the suspect. He was hit in the chest at least once and collapsed at the scene. Paramedics arrived four minutes after receiving the emergency call at 2.16am and rushed him to hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The gunman remains in hospital in a critical condition.

Sgt Ratana had been at rugby practice at East Grinstead Rugby club in West Sussex, where he was head coach, before driving into London for his night shift. A grieving friend from the rugby club said: “We’re all just devastated, it’s all quite overwhelming, it’s hard to believe what’s happened. I saw him last night, we trained with the team and he left training to come to his night shift.”

The suspect, who according to sources is a British citizen of mixed race with a family background in Sri Lanka, had been picked up in Croydon city centre during a routine police stop and search 40 minutes before the alleged murder of Sgt Ratana. The young man had been acting suspiciously in the early hours of yesterday morning when he was arrested at 1.40am by a team of five officers. Little is known about the alleged killer but sources have told The Telegraph he had been signed up to a Home Office deradicalisation programme to “provide support to individuals who are at risk of being drawn into terrorism”.

It is understood the man had been downloading from the internet both far-Right and Islamic State propaganda. The suspect had autism and has been described as confused, the situation “complicated”.

He was investigated briefly but authorities dismissed him as a concern. Intelligence services have no record of the man on their extensive list of 40,000 terror suspects and have ruled out terrorism as a possible motive for yesterday’s shooting.

One source wondered if armed officers should not have been called once the ammunition was found. The source said: “If they found bullets they should have put Trojan (armed officers) out. You would look to call them up. With hindsight, you should have been standing there and saying: ‘I have bullets, where is the gun?’”

Ken Marsh, chairman of the Met Police Federation, explained that the law on stop and search “doesn’t give you a chance to do an intimate search”. He added: “You can only do that in a custody suite. You can quite easily hide a knife or firearm in the genital area. You can’t do [an intimate search] in a public place by law. You have to bring the individual to a custody suite and get it authorised by the custody sergeant.”

By yesterday afternoon, the front entrance to the custody centre was being transformed into a makeshift memorial for the fallen officer.

Jacqueline Kufuor, a community police officer, burst into tears as she lay flowers at the scene. “You never expect this to happen when you go to work,” she said. “He was a very lovely man.”