There was a shooting here

earlier in the week. It made headline news for a number of reasons. The person who was shot was wielding a knife. He is alleged to have been mentally ill. The police shot him after they had attempted to taser him and failed.

Our Police Commissioner was, if you listened carefully, struggling to maintain control. He was not angry. He was upset. You could hear the grief in his voice. There is apparently every reason to believe the police officers involved did as they are trained to do but that will make it no easier for them. The Commissioner knows that.

I think I have mentioned elsewhere in this blog that I was once very peripherally involved in an incident involving police and guns. It was a Saturday morning in London and a long time ago. The problem is that, when reminded of it, the incident still feels as if it happened yesterday.  

Another student and I were going into the local post office to send off those all important "we're okay" letters to our parents when we were knocked aside by two (I think) men with guns rushing out. They had just robbed the post office. It left B... and I shaken - but not as shaken as the staff or the customers who had been in there at the time.

I don't suppose I was ever in any real danger but it did not feel like that at the time. The incident left me and my friend shaken, very shaken. 

There always seemed to be police around in central London and they had the situation under control very rapidly. I can only suppose the offenders eventually faced court. We did not see any of that but it still took some time before B... and I stopped looking over our shoulders or we felt comfortable going into that post office. Now I tend to remember it when something like this happens or on the rare occasions I have used a small post office in another location. That post office has also been subjected to a number of incidents over the years.  

I have wondered about the post office staff and the people who were in the post office at the time. I have also wondered about the police who were first involved in the incident. They had to try and apprehend the armed offenders without the use of firearms themselves. They had no tasers to help them. Somehow they must have done it.

I wonder what would have happened here if the police had not been armed. I also wonder how they will cope with the knowledge that the shots they did fire killed a man. It might have been done within their training and within the law but it isn't going to be easy for them.