Silence at rugby game to honour ‘truly remarkable’ sergeant shot dead inside police station

Two minute round of applause held at Nottingham rugby club

Tributes to sergeant Matiu Ratana are seen outside Croydon Custody Centre on Sunday (Getty Images)

Colleagues, friends and teammates of Matiu Ratana, the police sergeant killed by a handcuffed suspect in a custody suite, will pay silent tribute to him two days after his untimely death.

Ratana, originally from New Zealand, has been hailed as a “father figure” and “role model” by those that knew him. 

The 54-year-old sergeant, known more commonly as Matt, was heavily involved in club rugby, prompting his former teammates at East Grinstead Rugby Club to plan a minute’s silence before matches begin on Sunday morning.

Matt Marriot, vice-chairman of the club, said there had been "enormous" interest in two planned one-minute silences, with people "from all over the country" expected to pay their respects.

He told BBC Breakfast: "I've actually never met anybody quite like Matt, he must have been an incredible policeman. His attention to detail and his strive for perfection, his work ethic, just blew all of us away."

He added: "He wasn't just a coach to the players. He was a role model, a mentor, and often actually a father figure. We're going to mourn him as a family member. He's left a big hole, to be honest."

London Irish, another club Ratana played for and later coached at, similarly paid their respects to the police officer by releasing a statement in honour of him. 

“Matt was an integral part of the Bs for many years - he features in the memories of many of us whether it be from our tours to the likes of Sicily, Catatonia and Marbella, on the pitch or in the bar sharing stories,” the club’s chairman Kevin Flynn said, before adding: “He was a true gent and dedicated police officer and will leave a gap in our hearts on and off the field.”

Similar reports of clubs across the UK paying respects to the sergeant continue to be shared on Twitter and other social media platforms. Notably, Long Eaton Rugby Club, based in Nottingham, posted that its players had held a two minute round of applause for Ratana before play resumed on Sunday morning.

A minute's silence was also held at New Scotland Yard and Croydon Police Station to pay tribute to Ratana, who joined the police force in 1991. 

Met commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said Ratana “was big in stature and big-hearted, a friendly, capable police officer. A lovely man, highly respected by officers and staff, and by the public, including suspects he arrested or dealt with in custody".

Dame Dick also said: “He was very well known locally and will be remembered so fondly in Croydon, as well as in the Met and the rugby world."

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern followed suit, sharing a Facebook post dedicated to Ratana’s service and life.

Also on Sunday, the Prince of Wales will lead tributes to fallen police officers for National Police Memorial Day (NPMD), honouring those who have lost their lives on duty.

Investigators probing the fatal shooting are working with a "determination to find justice" for their fallen colleague, the officer leading the murder case said.

The suspect in the killing, which took place at Croydon Custody Centre in south London at around 2.15am on Friday, remains in a critical condition in hospital.

The 23-year-old, who also shot himself, had still not been spoken to by officers on Saturday evening due to his condition.

Meanwhile there has been a public outcry for the suspect to be named, with some Twitter users branding it “an outrage” that his name had not yet been released to the media and general public. 

“Surely if he’s named the public might have info that could help the investigation,” one user wrote.

Police are said to be "painstakingly" searching four crime scenes in connection with the killing, including the custody suite where the incident unfolded and the site at which the suspect was arrested in Norbury for possession of ammunition and class B drugs.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which attended the scene after the shooting, said the suspect had been taken into the building and sat in a holding area in the custody suite, then opened fire while still in handcuffs as officers prepared to search him with a metal detector.

No police firearms were fired in the incident, it has been confirmed, and the case is not being treated as terror-related.

Ratana leaves behind a partner and a grown-up son. He had moved into custody work because he thought it was safer as he approached retirement, a friend told reporters.

He is the eighth police officer in the UK to be shot dead in the last 20 years and the first to be murdered by a firearm in the line of duty since Pcs Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes in September 2012.

The Met sergeant is the 17th from the force to be killed by a firearm since the end of the Second World War, according to the National Police Memorial roll of honour.

Additional reporting by agencies

[27 September 2020 21:13 · Chris Riotta]

Trump claims his tweet inspired US Marshals to kill suspect in shooting of right-wing protester in Portland

Andrew Naughtie writes: Donald Trump told a crowd last night that one of his tweets inspired US Marshals to swoop on a gunman who shot a right-wing protester in Portland, Oregon.

His speech came after another night of unrest saw the Portland police use physical force against people on the streets.

Speaking at a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania, Mr Trump reiterated his description of Portland as an “anarchist” city where police are not allowed to “do their job”, before describing the killing of Aaron Danielson in Portland and the US Marshals’ subsequent shooting of the alleged killer, Michael Forest Reinoehl.

“You had the guy two weeks ago, remember?” said the president. “He shot a guy and killed him right in the middle of the street. Shot him like a – oh, I don’t even wanna say like what, ‘cause his parents are so devastated. A young man, and they shot him and killed him, this one guy, this one animal ... And this guy, everybody knew who he was, right? And I said after two days, ‘Where is he, did you arrest him?’ ‘No we didn’t’ – after two-and-a-half days! ‘Did you arrest him?’

[27 September 2020 20:50 · Chris Riotta]

White House staff discussed what may happen if Trump loses election and refuses to leave, ex-aide says

White House staff discussed the issue of President Donald Trump refusing to accept the results of the upcoming election were he to lose power in November, according to a former aide Vice President Mike Pence.

Olivia Troye, former counterterrorism and homeland security adviser to the vice president and an ex-member of the White House coronavirus response task force, warned Americans to take the president at his word when he did not commit to a peaceful transition of power during a press briefing last week.

“You know, the president, when he's joking – if he says that he's joking, he's telling you a half-truth and in there is something fairly frightening and scary,” Ms Troye told CNN’s Wolfe Blitzer in an interview on Friday. “What you see is what you get … you should trust that. He doesn’t hide it.”

“It’s actually frightening to me because, to be honest, during my tenure at the White House I had conversations behind closed doors with White House staffers and other government officials — including people in the intelligence community — where we’ve actually discussed ‘what if,’” she added. “‘What if he loses and refuses to leave, or or better yet, what if his plan is four more years of Donald Trump should he win, and will he even leave after that?”

[27 September 2020 20:29 · Chris Riotta]

GOP online donor platform criticised for selling 'Notorious A.C.B.' shirts just days after Ginsburg's death

A Republican fundraising group has stirred controversy after copying a nickname affectionately given to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and using it on a t-shirt design to support President Donald Trump’s nomination for the nation's highest court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

WinRed, a grassroots fundraising group committed to electing Republicans, encouraged donors to show their support for the president’s nominee by purchasing the t-shirt, which featured an image of judge Barrett and a crown on top of her head.

The shirt reads: “Notorious A.C.B.”

The new nickname for Mr Trump’s nominee was immediately seen as a take on the moniker “The Notorious R.B.G.,” which was reportedly given to Justice Ginsburg by a law student.

The late justice embraced the nickname — a reference to the legendary rapper Christopher Wallace, who went by the stage name The Notorious B.I.G. — throughout her career.

Story to come…

[27 September 2020 19:51 · Gino Spocchia]

TikTok pleads with judges over Trump administration ban

Lawyers for the social media app TikTok pleaded with a US federal judge on Sunday to delay a ban that the Trump administration was set to impose before the end of the day, arguing the move would infringe on First Amendment rights and do irreparable harm to the business.

The 90-minute hearing comes as TikTok’s Chinese owners, ByteDance, attempt to finalise a provisional deal struct with Oracle and Walmart, months after the US president declared this that TikTok was a threat to national security and that it either sold its US operations or be banned. 

The ban on new downloads of TikTok, which has about 100 million users in the US, was already delayed once by the government, with a more comprehensive ban scheduled for November, about a week after the presidential election. 

Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said he would make a decision by later on Sunday, leaving TikTok's fate hanging in the balance.

"If that prohibition goes into effect at midnight, the consequences immediately are grave,'" John Hall, a lawyer for TikTok said. "It would be no different than the government locking the doors to a public forum, roping off that town square" at a time when a free exchange of ideas is necessary heading into a polarised election.

Associated Press

[27 September 2020 19:24 · Gino Spocchia]

Steel plant that laid-off hundreds used in Trump campaign ad on ‘greatest economy’ 

The Trump campaign is reported to be running television adverts boasting about building “the best” economy in history, and will do so again, despite the ad featuring footage from a steel plant that announced it was laying off more than 700 workers. 

According to Vice News, the footage seen in the advert was filmed on a presidential visit in 2018, showing the US president tour the US Steel factory in Illinois that announced more than 700 redundancies in April as a part of 2,500 company-wide layoffs. 

The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated US Steel’s long-term instability, which lead to a series of cuts last year. 

[27 September 2020 19:00 · Gino Spocchia]

President due to speak tonight, following Biden comments

Donald Trump - who was reported to be playing golf in Virginia this weekend - will speak from the White House briefing room at 10pm this evening.

It follows an address by his election opponent, Joe Biden, earlier on Sunday, that accused Mr Trump of breaking precedent over his nomination of a Supreme Court justice to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the election on 3 November. 

[27 September 2020 18:53 · Gino Spocchia]

Trump continues to trail Biden

The US president continues to trail Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, in a recent poll carried-out by the Washington Post and ABC News, putting Donald Trump 10 points behind in a two-way contest.

According to the recent poll, Mr Biden's 54-44 advantage over Mr Trump in a two-way contest is the same as it was when voters were polled in mid-August. 

Meanwhile, the Democrat currently stands at 48 per cent among voters in Minnesota, a crucial swing state, with the president 6 percentage points behind.

[27 September 2020 18:23 · Gino Spocchia]

…and here was Donald Trump, earlier today, suggesting his nomination to the Supreme Court could lead to repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Amy Comey Barett, the president’s nomination to the court, could be on sitting on the bench in time for oral arguments on 10 November, in a case that could see the invalidation of the 2010 law popularly known Obamacare, thereby  potentially removing health coverage from millions of Americans amid a pandemic.

"It’€™s no mystery what is happening here. President Trump is trying to throw out the Affordable Care Act. He has been trying to do this for four years," said Mr Biden in Delaware on Sunday.

[27 September 2020 18:12 · Gino Spocchia]

Biden says Trump Supreme Court pick ‘defies every precedent’ 

Addressing Republican plans to push through Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination before the end of the month, Joe Biden said on Sunday that the president had broken with precedent, in a speech delivered from Wimington, Delaware.

“Never before in our nation's history has a Supreme Court justice been nominated and installed while a presidential election is already underway," said the ex-VP, pointing-out that hundreds of thousands of voters have begun casting their ballots for the 3 November election.

“There’s no mystery about what’s happening here, president Trump is trying to throw-out the Affordable Care Act,” added Mr Biden, saying the Supreme Court had acted as a barrier against previous efforts to dismantle health provisions otherwise known as "Obamacare". 

[27 September 2020 17:45 · Gino Spocchia]

Pelosi provides warnings on healthcare over Supreme Court pick 

House speaker Nancy Pelosi has described president Donald Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court as a danger which “threatens the destruction” of health care protections for more than 135 million Americans provided by the Affordable Care Act.

In a statement released shortly after the president nominated judge Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative federal judge and professor at Notre Dame law school, Ms Pelosi narrowed in on the president’s attempts to repeal the landmark healthcare legislation passed by his predecessor, former president Barack Obama.

“For four years, president Trump has tried to crush the Affordable Care Act in the Congress and the Courts,” the House speaker said in a statement on Saturday night.

Chris Riotta has the story: