Two Tasers used on suicide fugitive Raoul Moat
Updated on 10 July 2010
It has emerged police used two Taser guns on Raoul Moat, shortly before he killed himself in Northumberland. Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson reports on Moat's final hours as Channel 4 News reveals the details kept from the public until a news blackout was lifted.
Warning: You may find some parts of the accompanying TV report distressing.
We now know two Tasers were fired during the stand-off with gunman Raoul Moat which ended at 1.15am on Saturday morning.
After a week-long manhunt the 37-year-old shot himself in the head after being surrounded by armed police.
Northumbria Police Temporary Chief Constable Sue Sim told reporters officers had been trying to persuade Moat to give himself up peacefully. She added: "During this time officers discharged Taser. However this did not prevent his death."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating events leading up to Moat's death, today confirmed two were used by separate officers.
A single gunshot was heard at around 1.15am before the fugitive was taken by ambulance to Newcastle General Hospital. He was then seen being taken from the ambulance on a stretcher with a blanket covering his head. It is believed he was pronounced dead on arrival.
More from Channel 4 News on Raoul Moat case
- News blackout lifted after Raoul Moat death
- Desperate Moat raided sheds for food, say friends
- Raoul Moat dead after shots fired
- Raoul Moat threat to wider public
- Raoul Moat: timeline of a fugitive
Ken Branson, a local man who was just a few yards away from the police stand off, has told Channel 4 News he believes Moat was "waiting to be caught."
He said: "He was simply standing by the riverbank. My impression, based on my experience, is that he was either waiting for the police or looking forward to a confrontation."
Details are also beginning to emerge about how Moat moved about, while evading detection. It is believed he travelled through a network of Victorian drains which have now been sealed off by police.
Moat, 37, from Newcastle, was released from Durham prison on 1 July. on Saturday 3 July his ex-girlfriend was injured and her partner Chris Brown shot dead in the Birtley area of Gateshead.
On Sunday 4 July a police officer, Pc David Rathband, 42, was shot in an "unprovoked attack" at a roundabout at East Denton, Newcastle. He is recovering in hospital.
The mother of Chris Brown, who was shot dead by fugitive gunman Raoul Moat, has said she is "relieved it's all over with no further injury or loss of life".
Moat's death brings to an end a huge manhunt involving police officers from 15 forces, Scotland Yard sharpshooters and armoured 4x4 cars. An RAF Tornado was also used in a bid to find him.
It was a 'lonely suicide', writes Channel 4 News Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson:
As the acting chief constable has pointed out, few people wanted this outcome. A young woman and a young policeman lie with terrible injuries and a long road to recovery. A young man is dead.
Many will need support who have been touched by this long and sometimes genuinely terrifying experience.
My sources say that in those six hours as the weather changed from evening summer sunshine and warmth to a cold night of torrential rain, so Raoul Moat fell further apart, to his end.
I’m told the early hours of aggression, swearing, defiance and bravado gave way, as night fell, to a lonely man saying nobody loved him or understood him, or valued him.
Wider frame, questions will go on – and rightly so. Northumbria police have called in the IPCC – the police complaints people – as they have to in this situation.
They will examine how Mr Moat came to die and what part the firing of a police Taser played in that dark, wet, lonely, suicide.
It can now be reported that police were so worried about the potential danger Raoul Moat posed to the public that they demanded a news blackout about his private life.
During a press briefing, officers said Moat's "rules have changed" and any reporting of his private life could endanger the public.
Northumbria Police wrote to news organisations, including Channel 4 News. They said that Moat's threats, which were previously aimed at the police, had widened.
Channel 4 News correspondent Darshna Soni reveals details of the 'news blackout':
Over the last few days, Northumbria Police had asked the media to agree to a voluntary blackout on some aspects of their hunt for Raoul Moat. We all agreed, because of the seriousness of the developments. We can now report the extraordinary details.
Moat had been deliberately leaving a series of messages behind for those hunting him. The most worrying was contained in a message recorded on a dictaphone, which he left in his tent. It was four hours long, and for the most part, Moat spoke of his personal life and his perceived grudge against the police. But he also left a deadly threat.
Moat said that he was unhappy with some of the coverage about him, in particular reports about his private life. We don't know how he was getting access to these reports. Was he listening to a radio, reading the papers, perhaps being told by friends?
Something had upset Moat and he said in his message: "For every piece of inaccurate information published I will select a member of the public and kill them." He said he would ring the police and give them prior warning.
That's why officers were telling the public on Thursday that there was now a "general threat to the public." This caused a lot of confusion and at a public meeting I went to in Rothbury that evening, the police were asked several times why they couldn't elaborate. But detectives had to tread a very careful line. They didn't want to risk upsetting Moat any further.
All the more astonishing then, when a police officer read out a message of support from a young boy who referred to Moat as a "nutter." She issued a swift apology.
Journalists had been told this information in a very unusual off-the-record briefing, just before a press conference, but we were asked not to reveal any of it. The senior investigating officer told us that he could not legally force us to comply, but said it was "a matter or life and death." We were not even allowed to report that there was a blackout, although this fact did appear on the internet.
It's always tricky when journalists are asked not to report things and some of you will have strong views about media blackouts. News editors had to consider the request very carefully. However, given the very serious nature of the threats, all agreed to comply.
In his recorded message Moat said he was not going to be like Cumbrian gunman Derrick Bird and shoot "old ladies". Instead it was implied he would target police and journalists.
Police also asked for stories already published about Moat's personal life to be removed from news websites.
Comments made by Moat's mother Josephine Healey, who had little contact with Moat during the past 18 years, that her son "would be better off dead" are thought to have been among the remarks which had upset him.
Northumbria Police issued an apology after neighbourhood inspector Sue Peart read out a card from two children which described Moat as "a nutter".
Meanwhile it has emerged police are investigating a number of "unusual burglaries" around Rothbury, as friends of Raoul Moat tell Channel 4 News they believe he was raiding sheds and living off stolen tomatoes.
A man fitting Moat's description had broken into gardens and sheds, searching for food. He stole tomatoes and cucumbers - anything he could get his hands on.
One woman said she reported a burglary on Tuesday and that the forensic officer who came to look for fingerprints told her it was very probably Moat who had broken in.
