THE shots which killed Arthur Stewart, the Clydebank gunman who
terrorised a tenement last May, were fired as he pointed a loaded
shotgun only a few feet from the face of a police officer.
The bullets which eventually ended Stewart's life came from a Heckler
and Koch semi-automatic carbine held by Constable Archibald McVicar, 36,
of Strathclyde police tactical firearms unit.
PC McVicar yesterday stepped from the witness box at Paisley Sheriff
Court to re-enact for Sheriff Principal Robert Hay the final moments of
Stewart, who advanced on him with a single barrelled, bolt action
shotgun sawn off at barrel and stock.
He told a fatal accident inquiry of the final time Stewart descended
the stairs at 348 Dumbarton Road, Clydebank, where he had been contained
for three and a half hours by armed officers. The tenement housed a
number of families including Stewart's former girlfriend, whom he had
threatened.
Questioned by Mr James Cardle, procurator-fiscal, Constable McVicar
said Stewart had run up and down twice between floors.
''I prepared myself. I took the safety off the Heckler and Koch and
put it at the ready action. He came down again, only this time he came
over to his left, into my sight,'' he said.
Raising the gun in the court, Constable McVicar said Stewart had
lifted the shotgun and aimed it at him.
Mr Cardle: What did you think he was going to do?
PC McVicar: He was going to shoot me.
Mr Cardle: What did you do?
PC McVicar: I shot him.
The constable said he had fired two rapid shots from a range of eight
feet which knocked Stewart backwards. He had not been conscious of the
movements of other officers around him. He left the scene immediately.
He earlier told Mr Cardle of the stream of threats made by Stewart
that he would shoot the police and how, as the armed containment drew to
its conclusion, he heard Stewart ascend the stairs towards two armed
officers, one of whom had stood on broken glass. Two rapid shots, fired
by the police, had followed.
The officer who fired those, Sergeant Keith Webb, 33, a force firearms
instructor and a member of the tactical firearms unit, earlier
demonstrated to the inquiry the actual Heckler and Koch carbine he used.
As they descended the tenement stairs his colleague, also armed, had
trod on broken glass, alerting Stewart. They froze, but Stewart had
heard, he said.
As his colleague shouted: ''Armed police. Stop. Stand still,'' he got
his first sight of Stewart. His colleague shouted: ''Don't point the
gun,'' but Stewart had levelled it straight at his (Sergeant Webb's)
head.
''At that point I believed I was about to be shot. I immediately fired
two shots as I am trained to do,'' he said.
Sergeant Webb said he had the red dot of his sight on Stewart's upper
chest about eight or 10 feet away.
''As far as I was concerned I believed I had hit him. I had never shot
anyone before. I never knew what the reaction would be,'' he said.
Sergeant Webb told the inquiry Stewart had lowered the shotgun and
retreated down the stairs. The two rounds had embedded themselves in an
oak bannister three and a half feet in front of Sergeant Webb.
Both officers told the inquiry that after the shooting they had been
questioned by inquiry officers and suspended from operational firearms
duties, part of force policy until all inquiries into any firearms
incident were complete.
The inquiry continues.
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