AN off-duty policeman shouted a warning before shooting a criminal who had just robbed a petrol station, an inquest was told on Monday.
He said: “Drop the knife or I’ll shoot”, coroner John Leckey heard.
Marc Alexander Ringland, 29, died in hospital after he was hit in the chest at the Belfast garage in February 2011.
His family were shown CCTV footage of his death during his inquest at the Old Town Hall.
The DVD recording showed Mr Ringland, who had a lengthy criminal record with 133 convictions including for robbery, flash a knife at a shop assistant before helping himself to cash. He was wearing a striped top with the hood pulled up and had his face partially covered with a mask when he walked behind the counter of the BP filling station on east Belfast’s Albertbridge Road.
Three of Mr Ringland’s relatives chose to stay in court to view the footage which was being shown to the jury of eight men and two women. They displayed no emotion as events were silently played out on the television screen. Other relatives waited outside the courtroom.
Mr Ringland, a father of one from Calvin Street in east Belfast, was shot as he made his way out of the premises by an off-duty police officer who had stopped to buy petrol on his way to a night shift. The policeman, known only as Officer A, had four years’ service with the PSNI and was not prosecuted in connection with the shooting. The hearing was told he had completed firearms training in December 2010.
Jeff Smyth, acting director of investigations with the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman’s Office, said inquiries had found that no official guidelines had been breached. Mr Smyth described the death as tragic but claimed Officer A’s actions complied with the PSNI principles to protect life and uphold the law.
He said the policeman had been interviewed under criminal caution but there was no evidence to suggest any criminal aspect to the death.
“It was a spontaneous reaction carried out in accordance with PSNI policies and procedures,” he said.
Mr Smyth said PSNI officers were not trained to aim for limbs. He added: “The use of firearms is a serious business, it’s last resort business. Officers are trained to aim for the central body mass. It is lethal force — a last resort. Officers are rigorously trained and refreshed.”
Mr Ringland stole £215 in cash.
Shop assistant Karl Elliott, 22, initially thought he was the subject of a prank but realised the robbery was real when he was shown the blade.
“He (Mr Ringland) just said ‘open it’ in a low voice. I could smell alcohol and his eyes were glazed,” he said. “I opened the till, stood back and signalled for him to work away.”
Mr Ringland was confronted by Officer A as he tried to leave the premises. CCTV footage shows that Mr Ringland did not appear to slow his pace before the policeman discharged one round.
Witnesses recalled hearing a verbal warning before the shot. Shop owner Belinda Law said she could clearly make out the words ‘drop the knife or I’ll shoot’. Another witness, Kyle Thompson, said the warning was loud enough to startle everyone in the shop and left people in no doubt that the man with the gun was a PSNI member. “He shouted police, stop,” Mr Thompson said.
Mr Ringland had been intoxicated and was almost three times over the legal drink-drive limit. There were also traces of the drugs cannabis and temazepam in his system.
Assistant state pathologist Dr James Lyness said the bullet had penetrated his chest and cut the main pumping chamber of his heart before lodging in muscles in his back. Despite immediate first aid by Officer A and a member of the public, Dr Lyness said it was unlikely Mr Ringland would have survived.
The hearing continues.