NORTHUMBRIA POLICE are to seek millions of pounds in extra funding from the British Home Office to pay for the week-long hunt for gunman Raoul Moat, who died from a single gunshot to the head, according to evidence given at an inquest in Newcastle yesterday.
Armed police from South Yorkshire, drafted into the search for the fugitive gunman, fired two Taser shots from 12-gauge shotguns in an effort to stop him taking his own life in the early hours of Saturday, Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) official Steve Reynolds told the inquest.
The XRep Taser is being tested by the Home Office but has not been licensed for police use, though chief constables are free to deploy any equipment they wish as long as they can prove afterwards that its use was “lawful, reasonable and proportionate”.
IPCC investigators have already questioned occupants of homes near the scene of last Friday night’s dramatic events and they are also to take detailed statements from the officers and police negotiators directly involved.
Newcastle coroner David Mitford ruled that the preliminary cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and adjourned the inquest hearing until a later date. Moat’s family has sought a second postmortem.
Meanwhile, Northumbria Police, who have faced criticism for taking so long to find the gunman who killed one man and injured two other people, insisted there was no evidence that he used a drain running underneath Rothbury village to hide.
Fearing the impact of budget cuts to come on police forces, Tynemouth Labour MP Alan Campbell has written to home secretary Theresa May seeking assurances that Northumbria will get extra support from an emergency fund.
Three more men were arrested yesterday in connection with the investigation, bringing the total number questioned so far to 10.
Meanwhile, bouquets – including one with a note reading “A true legend” and another reading, “RIP Mr Moat. Totally understand your feelings. God bless” – which had been left at the scene have been thrown into the river. Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said people needed to think “about what precisely they are saying about our society”.
Mrs Sally Brown, the mother of Chris Brown, the man killed by Moat, said: “I don’t understand now, for some reason, why he is being praised and seen as some hero. It’s wrong.”
