Northumbria Police are today facing questions about the use of Tasers during the violent end to the stand-off with fugitive Raoul Moat.
Police finally caught up with the nightclub bouncer on a riverbank in Rothbury, Northumberland, on Friday night, beginning the six-hour siege with armed officers and police negotiators. Police said Moat (37) killed himself with a shotgun at around 1.15am yesterday.
According to the News of the World, one officer said the Tasers were fired to immobilise the suspect, who had been holding a shotgun to his head. Moat was wanted for the fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend's new partner and gun attacks on her and a policeman.
Moat was “no psycho”, his brother insisted today. Angus Moat said he was prevented by police from reaching his brother Raoul, who was cornered by armed officers on a riverbank in Rothbury, Northumberland.
He said he was convinced he could have talked the former nightclub doorman into laying down his weapon. Instead he watched events live on television. The tax officer, who has not seen his brother “for a number of years”, said he would blame himself for not doing more to be by his brother’s side during his final hours.
But he questioned the use of Tasers during the tense negotiations and said he thought the stun gun could have triggered Moat to shoot himself in the head.
Mr Moat (39) said: “Raoul has been made out to be some kind of Terminator, Rambo character, a psycho, and it could not be more untrue. “That is not the brother I knew.
“He was a friendly, generous soul; a very loyal individual, warm, with a great sense of humour, just a lovely, lovely guy."
Reading a statement yesterday, Northumbria Police Temporary Chief Constable Sue Sim said police “discharged Taser” during the stand-off.
But she refused to answer any questions, prompting speculation over what stage of the negotiations the Tasers were fired, what prompted their discharge, what effect they had on Moat and whether the use of the Tasers played any part in Moat’s decision to pull the trigger on his gun.
One of Moat's friends brought in to speak to him during the negotiations said he thought the stun gun triggered Moat to shoot himself in the head.
Moat's friend Anthony Wright (34) told the Sunday Mirror: "They got me there too late. I could have talked him round. I'm sure those Tasers led to his death."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating events leading up to Moat’s death, later confirmed two Tasers were used by separate officers.
A postmortem gave the cause of Moat’s death as gunshot wounds consistent with the weapon he was carrying, it was reported last night.
A family member told BBC News that they could find no mention in the postmortem report of any marks on Moat’s body specifically linked to an injury from a Taser stun gun. There were marks consistent with “rough living”.
Moat’s death followed a manhunt that lasted almost a week after Moat’s ex-girlfriend Sam Stobbart was shot and injured, her boyfriend Chris Brown was shot dead and police officer David Rathband was shot in his patrol car.
PA