Metropolitan police officer cries as he tells inquest he feared gunman barrister Mark Saunders was going to kill him

This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

A police marksman wept today as he described how he had no choice but to shoot gunman barrister Mark Saunders dead.

The Metropolitan police officer, known only as Alpha Zulu 7 (AZ7), said he feared Saunders, 32, would kill him.

He told Westminster coroner's court how relieved he was when the gunman began lowering the weapon, only to move it upwards again.

But seconds later AZ7 said he fired his MP5 carbine to protect himself as he stared down the barrel of the 12-bore shotgun.

Struggling to maintain his composure, the officer said: "I saw the top of the barrel, the top of the gun starting to descend towards us and I continued to scream at him.

"I thought: 'He is actually going to shoot me'. So I started squeezing the trigger, but it seemed at that moment the barrel went back up again.

"I was so relieved. I released the pressure on my trigger. I wanted to give him every possible chance to drop the weapon, only there is only so far I can go."

Nicholas Hilliard QC, for the inquest, said: "Had he moved the gun though your line, through the position where you were?"

The officer replied: "In my mind, if he wanted to pull the trigger at that point I would have been too late. I would be dead."

The CO19 officer described how he was stationed on the roof of a Bywater Street property that backed on to Saunders' £2.2m Markham Square home in Chelsea, west London.

He said Saunders looked unsteady and could be seen swigging from a large glass of wine before smashing his kitchen window with the butt of his shotgun.

Coroner Dr Paul Knapman asked the officer, who gave evidence from behind screens, if he wanted to sit down as he cried and sniffed loudly.

The officer said that in the final seconds of the confrontation he hoped the gunman would drop his Beretta 12-bore out of the kitchen window into the garden below.