Police assured barrister Mark Saunders: We will not shoot you

(AP)

A barrister who was killed by armed police was assured he would not be shot by officers stationed outside his home shortly before they opened fire on him, an inquest heard yesterday. Mark Saunders died in May 2008 when he was shot by armed police after he opened fire on them following a five-hour siege at his west London home.

Yesterday, at the inquest into his death, the jury heard recordings of conversations Mr Saunders had with a trained police negotiator in the two-and-a-half hours before his death.

They heard Superintendent John Sutherland, who undertook the majority of the negotiations, tell Mr Saunders: "You are not going to burst out and you are not going to get gunned down. Nobody is going to get hurt today. That is the deal... You have my word that nobody is going to harm you. Listen Mark, you are not going to die today. It is as simple as that."

After asking him to turn the music down – Mr Saunders was playing songs by The Doors at high volume – Mr Sutherland added: "You are in the driving seat and when you come out of the front door you can talk it through."

During the negotiations, which started shortly before 7pm on 6 May, Mr Saunders, who was drunk, told police it would be "painless" to shoot himself. Mr Sutherland told Mr Saunders that it would be "agony" for his wife if he committed suicide and said: "You have got a future, Mark."

Earlier, the inquest heard that Mr Saunders, who had a recurring alcohol problem, had been in his flat for more than two hours during which he had repeatedly opened fire on neighbouring properties.

He held up notes to the police at his window. In one he wrote "Please let me talk to my wife. I don't know how this happened. I am not a bad lad. I want to say goodbye and kill myself."

Mr Saunders' wife, Elizabeth, had suggested going to speak with him, but officers refused to allow this. Mr Saunders' family have criticised this decision, saying that he would still be alive if police had allowed his wife to speak with him.

Yesterday Mr Sutherland explained that officers feared he would kill himself immediately if they had allowed him to do so. He said: "If their stated intention is to say goodbye to somebody, that to me as a trained negotiator is a sign that they want to do so as an immediate precursor to taking their life. The fact that he wanted to say goodbye, to me, meant that it was a very bad idea to introduce Mrs Saunders or anybody else he wanted to speak to for that purpose."

During the negotiations, lines of communication between Mr Saunders and the negotiator repeatedly failed as his mobile phone malfunctioned. In recorded excerpts, one officer suggests that Mr Saunders will not commit suicide, saying: "This is not a bloke who wants to die. The biggest danger is he shoots himself by mistake or comes wandering out with his gun and gets popped."

Officers eventually got through to Mr Saunders again. At 9.09pm Mr Saunders told Mr Sutherland that he "needed to blow off some steam" before firing two shots through the window, prompting two officers to fire back. It was the last thing he said to negotiator. Less than half an hour later, at 9.32pm, Mr Saunders again pointed his gun at police. Seven officers fired, hitting Mr Saunders in the head and chest and killing him.

Yesterday the jury was shown footage of the barrister's final moments. Recordings taken from a police helicopter showed the 32-year-old waving a shotgun in the air as he hung from the fourth-storey window of his home in Markham Square, Chelsea.

As the negotiator pleaded with him to put the weapon down, he lowered it. As it reached a horizontal position, a volley of shots rang out from armed officers positioned on buildings opposite the property. The film shows Mr Saunders doubled-up and thrown backwards by the force of five bullets fired by the police.