An unarmed British police officer suffered serious injuries to her head, neck and hand when she was shot during a routine call, sparking a six-hour manhunt for the suspect.
The 33-year-old uniformed officer is believed to have been hit by one shotgun round as she and a male colleague called at an address in the Hyde Park area of Leeds.
The shooting, at about 4am, has led to a major police search for the suspect, James Leslie (37) who was eventually arrested shortly after 10am, about 1km from the scene of the shooting, near a primary school.
Chief superintendant Paul Money, of West Yorkshire Police, said he believed his officer was hit by one shot from the gun as she called at a large semi-detached house in Cardigan Lane to "arrest an individual for a criminal damage-type offence".
Mr Money said, she was hit in the head, neck and right hand and is now in a serious but stable and not life-threatening condition in a Leeds hospital.
He said the officer managed to push a panic button to raise the alarm after she was hit and the commander praised her colleague who immediately gave controllers a real-time commentary on the unfolding incident over his personal radio.
“I have spoken and met with the officer’s family at the hospital in Leeds and I have reassured them that everything possible is being and will be done to support the officer,” Mr Money said as he visited the scene of the shooting.
“Her colleagues were quite understandably upset as well but they are displaying the qualities we so often see from our police officers and police staff in West Yorkshire in traumatic situations.
“When I met them this morning their concerns were around public safety and around supporting the injured officer.” Mr Money said the police operation has now moved from a “manhunt” to a criminal investigation.
The wounded officer has not been named but she is understood to have been in the force for a number of years and recently transferred from a neighbourhood policing team to the response unit. Armed police and other officers, supported by the force helicopter, swamped the Hyde Park and Headingley areas of Leeds in the hours before
Mr Leslie was located this morning. They said he had fled the scene of the shooting on a bike. Assistant chief constable Geoff Dodd said the arrest, in Wood Lane, Headingley, was made following a call from a member of the public who had spotted a man fitting Leslie's description.
Mr Dodd said: “It is right to say that incidents where police officers face threat from firearms are thankfully very rare but that does not lessen the shocking impact when an officer is injured in such a way.”
Hyde Park resident Kieran Williams (17) said he heard shots from his home behind the scene. He said he believed the shooting may be linked to an altercation he and his housemates had with Leslie yesterday.
He said a woman police officer came round to his house to investigate an allegation a bottle had been thrown at their window in the early hours of this morning and he was concerned that it was the same officer who was injured.