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The PSNI officer shot in North Belfast six weeks ago believes he has met the sniper who tried to murder him - and will meet him again when he is back at work.

The community officer is today speaking out in the hope of ensuring his appalling injuries are the last created by the deadly AK47 whose sight was trained on him as he went to buy a coffee at a garage.

The 29-year-old, who is recovering well both mentally and physically, plans to be back on Belfast’s highest-risk police beat before long and he wants the gun that shot him and the sniper off the streets.

In an in-depth interview with Belfast Live, he said: “I’m sure I’ll meet the people who shot me when I go back to work. I’m sure I’ve met them and possibly even spoken to them before.

"I think if I sat down and asked them why they shot me they’d probably say they didn’t know or that someone else told them to, or they had to in order to get into this or that. So it’s not for any great cause, it’s a box ticking exercise.

“I’m sure they’ve been showing off in their own circles but I don’t really give them the time of day to worry about that.”

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The constable, a keen sportsman who worked briefly in IT before gaining entry to the PSNI, says the community he serves in North Belfast is being used as cover by the shooter and get-away driver.

He explained: “I believe the people who tried to kill me on January 22 are members of the community I serve to keep safe and I believe there are people in the area know exactly who and where they are.

“They need to be given up. They tried to murder a man who joined the police simply to help people, who has worked for the last two and a half years to keep their community safe from killers and criminals. If they can turn on me, who else is at risk? Who else might get in their way?

“The people who did this are an extreme minority of troublemakers in the community.

“People need to know it’s not a bad place. A lot of the people in Ardoyne are glad to see us in their homes and wouldn’t think twice about calling the police.

“I don’t blame an entire community for this violence because I know good and decent people living there. My priority is to be fit enough to get back to work and keep people as safe as I can.

“In the meantime I’d ask everyone to search their consciences and if they’ve the slightest inkling about who was involved in trying to kill me, then please come forward.

“The gun used to shoot me was not under control when it was being fired, the bullets where flying everywhere and many people including young children, parents and pensioners could have been shot dead or seriously injured.

“It needs taken out of circulation as do the people who tried to murder me and who risked the lives of everyone near me.

“Still having that gun out there means everyone remains at risk, everyone.”

The young officer remembers every moment of the Sunday night ambush and says his life was saved by a colleague who had just three days service in the PSNI.

He said: “We work under a high terrorism threat and put great trust in our colleagues.

“On the night I was shot my partner had only been on the job three days. He’d finished his training and was part way through his fourth shift when the person who was meant to be looking out for him, got shot right before his eyes.”

The PSNI officers had 20 minutes earlier been helping a woman who had tried to take her own life with a blade and had been threatening to seriously injure another.

The officer said: “The lady had mental health problems and was in crisis so we needed to act fast to try to help her and prevent either her death or severe injury to someone else.

“It was my partner’s first big high-stress incident on the job. I felt for the guy. People sometimes just see the uniform but we’re still just ordinary people.

“So I needed to care for him to make sure he was OK and fit to care for the public for the rest of our shift.

“After we got sorted I suggested we get a coffee to decompress a bit.”

Twenty minutes later while taking care of his rookie colleague, the 29-year-old officer was shot at and hit by two bullets.

He said: “I walked back out of the garage when I realised I didn’t know how my partner took his coffee because that was the first time we’d been on patrol together. A wee old man coming in asked me, ‘How’re you getting it tonight son?’ and I laughed and said we were doing OK.

“Then I heard five loud bangs and remember thinking, ‘What was that?’

“I felt something hit my shoulder. I looked down and my hand and arm were in a bad way.

“I’d been shot. The bangs I'd heard were gun shots. My hand was just hanging off. The only thought in my head was to run for cover.

“My partner shouted to me and grabbed me by the flak jacket and I was on my knees with blood squirting everywhere from an artery in my wrist. I knew I needed compression and elevation so I put my arm up but my hand was just flopping about.

“My colleague was brilliant. He didn’t think twice. He grabbed my hand and arm and squeezed it tight all the while giving cover to an active gunman and shouting to the public to get down or get to safety.

“He was brave coming to help me knowing I was in trouble. He was straight out of the car. The fact he gave me the initial first aid is one of the reasons I’m still here.”

The injured officer’s initial reaction was that he would die on the forecourt of the Edenderry garage on Crumlin Road in the heart of the beat he had yearned to work.

He said: “The thought kept going through my head: I’m going to die here. I’m going to die in Edenderry forecourt, this where I’m going to go.”

But within moments he was back in control, thoughts of dying turning to thoughts of surviving, thoughts of disability turning to rehabilitation and recovery.

He said: “The world seemed to slow right down. I felt no pain and no fear. I remember I’d punched our car. I felt that getting shot had been stupid, like it was my own fault and I was angry. I was thinking that we shouldn’t have gone to the garage but we did and that was that. We just wanted a coffee.”

With his colleague delivering first aid and using his gun for cover, the injured officer managed to call the incident in himself.

He said: “The controller asked me direct questions and I gave him direct answers. He was fantastic.

“I was conscious and lucid. I could see the young fella behind the shop counter looking at me in absolute shock. It struck me that I might be the one with injuries but everyone in that forecourt was in trauma and danger. We were all strangers in this horrible common experience.

“And it was all local people there, people popping out to get petrol, nipping to get a loaf of bread or milk. It could have been any of them.

“I only heard five shots but as I ran for cover other shots were going off all around me. Bullets were hitting the ground, the cars and the window of the garage. Everyone was a potential target, a potential victim, a potential fatality.

“The paramedics arrived within about three minutes and once I knew they were looking after my hand and my colleague was OK, it started to dawn on me what had just happened.

“My mind cleared and I remember thinking that we were in a petrol station and then I thought if there was a secondary here, a pipe bomb or a grenade, it’d be the end of us all, never mind my hand.”

The officer was transferred to hospital by ambulance and refused to be operated on until his parents had seen him alive.

He said: “I knew my mum needed to know I was hurt but I didn’t want her taking that call. So I got my colleague to call my dad first but it didn’t go quite as planned.

“He told my dad, ‘I work with your son, he’s fine, he’s conscious and breathing but he’s been shot’.

“I was on gas and air at the time so I was OK but looking back now, well my poor dad. I wouldn't like to have been in the room when he got that call.

“My parents drove to the Royal Victoria Hospital where I was waiting to go into surgery and still conscious. I didn’t want my mum seeing me lying unconscious, looking lifeless on an operating table. That would've been terrible. They were very upset but when they saw me alive, everyone settled down.”

The officer initially underwent eight and a half hours of micro-surgery to reattach the severed tendons he needed to control his hand movement.

He needed a further three operations to take a skin graft, replace two inches of bone with metal plates, and pack flesh from his leg into the gaping hole in his arm left by the AK47 bullet. He also needed treatment to four flesh wounds on his upper arm and back from a second bullet.

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He said: “My recovery might involve a tough year but I will recover from this, I’ve no doubt about it. So I’ll be going back to work and yes, I’ll be going back to North Belfast.

“I’ve already returned to the garage and seeing the bullet holes in the back wall was a bit weird but other than that, it’s just a garage.

“In a way it’s been worse for other people, my family and friends, and my colleagues who are so much more than the uniform they wear. They came to help me when I thought I was dying.

“They had to see me with my hand hanging off and that’s traumatic. Then they had to go home with that in their mind and go back to work the next day and just get on with protecting and serving the community in North Belfast.

“For me it’s more straightforward. I was shot and I survived so I’ve no what-ifs. I’ve no regrets and I know my colleagues and medical staff did exactly what needed to be done to save life and my arm and I have no questions about that. I feel that I’ve been very lucky, in fact more lucky than unlucky.

“I want to say thanks to the members of the public who’ve come forward already with information about the attack.

“But I’d ask anyone who knows where that gun is or who shot me, to please let us know so we can take the gun and the person out of circulation and keep people safe.”

If you have information please call 08085600600.