Rookie firearms officer fell over and shot terrorist at London Bridge

A rookie firearms officer today revealed how he fell over and shot one of the London Bridge terrorists on the ground through his legs fearing he was about to be killed.

City of London Police officer ‘BX44’ said the confrontation with Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba was his first spontaneous firearms incident.

As he got out at Stoney Street at Borough Market, he saw three Asian men with large knives emerging from a crowd ‘closing us down’, he told jurors at an inquest.

Members of the public had a look of ‘terror’ on their faces as the men charged at officers – but within six seconds all three had been shot, the hearing was told.

Emergency services are pictured swarming London Bridge and the surrounding area on the night of the terror attack in 2017 

BX44 fired first at Butt because he thought he was about to kill his colleague BX46, who was first out of their Armed Response Vehicle (ARV).

Giving evidence anonymously at the Old Bailey, BX44 said: ‘The red dot (from the gun’s sights) was on him but there was very little reaction and I was surprised he was still coming.

‘I continued to track him and fire shots until I had to break away to deal with Rachid Redouane who at this point was closing us down and was about to kill another colleague, BX45.

‘The red dot was on him. I fired shots and there was no immediate reaction. I carried on firing until I had to deal with the third threat of Youssef Zaghba who was on top of me.

‘I was backing away trying to create a reactionary gap when I fired and fell backwards and as I fell backwards I fired and from the floor I fired through my legs up to his chest. I thought he was about to kill me.’

Afterwards, he kicked Zaghba’s hand away from his chest, as he assumed he was about to detonate an explosive belt, before moving on to support BX46, he said.

(From left) Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba killed eight people in the attack

The Isis fanatics ploughed into crowds crossing the River Thames in a rented Renault van (above) on June 3, 2017, before launching a knife rampage in nearby Borough Market killing eight

The battered Renault van used by terrorists during the attack on London Bridge in 2017

BX44 told how minutes after the first burst of gunfire, he saw Butt’s chest rise and fall.

He said: ‘I did not see his hands but his arms started to move down slowly towards the suicide vest. I thought he was going to detonate. I fired shots. They were aimed shots.’

The officer said he could hear colleagues also firing from his cover behind a pillar opposite the Wheatsheaf pub.

He said: ‘I thought he was dead and officers were in the process of moving up to the Wheatsheaf pub to evacuate and during that I again noticed movement and took further shots.’

BX44, who fired 17 shots, went on to help in a search for a fourth possible attacker, carried a woman having a seizure to safety, and found three people in a cupboard during a search of the nearby Black and Blue restaurant.

BX46, who qualified as a firearms specialist in 2013, told jurors that on the evening of June 3 2017 he had a Glock 17 pistol, a Taser and a G36 Carbine rifle.

The victims of the London Bridge terrorist attack were (top row left to right) Christine Archibald, James McMullan, Alexandre Pigeard, Sebastien Belanger, (bottom row left to right) Kirsty Boden, Sara Zelenak, Xavier Thomas and Ignacio Echeverria

When the call came in of pedestrians being struck by a van on London Bridge, he said he ‘feared the worst’ – a copycat terror attack like the one at Westminster three months before.

On route to the scene, Operation Plato was declared for a ‘marauding terrorist attack’ and his role was to ‘identify, locate, confront and neutralise’ the suspects, he said.

As they neared Stoney Street, he said he saw people with ‘terror, fear and concern’ on their faces saying ‘they’re stabbing people’.

He told jurors: ‘I could see a lot of commotion and a lot of people. My initial reaction was a bar fight that had spilled out into the street.

‘I could see either a chair or bollard being thrown but I could not see what was the cause of this commotion.

Police officers and members of the emergency services attend to a person injured in June 2017

Police officers walk along Borough High Street in London following the attack on June 3, 2017

‘My next recollection is seeing an Asian male in front of our car wearing a blue Arsenal football shirt.

‘His attention seemed to be on our car and I could see he had a large knife in his hand.

‘I formed the view he was an immediate threat to me and I would have said words to the effect ‘armed police, stand still, drop the knife’.’

He told jurors that the whole incident lasted a matter of seconds and that he had hoped to ‘dominate him verbally’.

But as he moved back to create a gap, he said Butt came forward to be one or two metres away from him.

He said: ‘I believe his intention was to use the knife and stab me, kill me and get hold of my weapons. The knife was in a raised position, which gave me great concern.

‘At this point I was aware that around his torso he was wearing an improvised explosive device.

‘I already knew he had a knife and he was a threat to my life but now he was an even bigger threat, even with one or two metres, a detonation would be fatal to colleagues, members of the public, anyone in the location.

‘So I aimed my rifle towards the male and I was moving back quickly and I moved the fire selector lever to fire and I pulled the trigger.’

BX46 said he was not aiming at any particular part of Butt’s body as he was still moving backwards quickly and was ‘off balance’.

He told jurors that he fired a ‘number of shots’, adding: ‘I stopped firing when the male fell to the floor in front of me.’

The officer said he looked around and saw his two colleagues dealing with the other suspects.

Tributes were left to the eight victims outside Borough Market after the attack in June 2017

BX46 said he saw his colleague BX44 fire towards the Wheatsheaf pub, near where Butt had collapsed.

He saw Butt moving his head off the ground as he lay injured, jurors heard.

BX46 told jurors: ‘I used lethal force to avert the danger of him detonating his device. I took an aimed shot to his head.’

Driver BX45 told the court: ‘As soon as I stopped the ARV two males started running towards where I was getting out of the driver’s side.

‘They were very close to me indeed, a matter of a metre or two. Both males had knives in their hands. I recall seeing one of them had what I believed was an IED (improvised explosive device) strapped to his chest.

‘I shouted a verbal warning. It was a matter of a split second and the person was on top of me. I thought I was either going to be stabbed or his IED would explode. I shot the male. I continued shooting until the male hit the floor.’

Amid the fast paced incident, BX45 said the handbrake on his ARV had not been put on and the car slowly rolled forward and stopped about 15 metres away.

In all, BX46, who was the operational commander, said he discharged six rounds.

Butt, 27, Redouane, 30, and Zaghba, 22, were all shot 10 minutes after embarking on a van and knife attack which left eight dead and 48 injured.

The inquest has heard that one pub-goer in the Wheatsheaf was inadvertently injured by a stray bullet.

The eight victims killed in the London Bridge terror attacks

Ignacio Echeverria

Spaniard Ignacio Echeverria was stabbed to death as he tried to fight off the terrorist attackers with his skateboard.

The 39-year-old had been in the UK for over a year was working as a financial crime analyst at HSBC.

Mr Echeverria joined unarmed police constables Wayne Marques and Charlie Guenigault in fighting off the three attackers as they set upon Marie Bondeville, hitting at least one terrorist with his skateboard.

‘His courageous efforts were to seek to stop the attack,’ Chief Coroner Mark Lucraft said.

Kirsty Boden

Mr Echeverria was the youngest of five siblings and was a Catholic who went to mass every week. He could speak English, German and French fluently. 

Nurse Kirsty Boden was fatally stabbed as she tried to tend to the wounded and the dying.

Miss Boden, 28, moved to London in 2013 from the small town of Loxton, in South Australia.

She was a senior staff nurse at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital and lived with her British boyfriend James Hodder in a flat in Hampstead.

Mr Hodder said: ‘She loved people and loved her life helping others. To Kirsty, her actions that night would have been an extension of how she lived her life.’ 

Alexandre Pigeard

Alexandre Pigeard was working as a waiter at Boro Bistro when he was attacked.

The 26-year-old Frenchman had moved to London to further his ambitions as a dance music DJ.

Minutes before he was fatally stabbed, he video-called his father Philippe during a break from work at the French restaurant.

Mr Pigeard had planned to return to France in the autumn of 2017 to help open a restaurant in Nantes and to record an EP with his musician father.

Mr Pigeard senior told the inquest: ‘I’m present here as a devastated father who has lost a child in such circumstances – an inconsolable father.’  

James McMullan

James McMullan was stabbed in the chest near the Barrowboy and Banker pub while he was celebrating getting financial backing for his online education company.

The British-Filipino entrepreneur was watching the Champions League final with friends in the pub.

The 32-year-old, from Hackney in East London, was attacked when he stepped outside to have a cigarette.

He had dreamed of helping children without access to education through his e-learning company.

Mr McMullan’s father Simon described his son as ‘funny, charming and clever’ and said ‘his fearlessness could never be underestimated’. 

Sebastien Belanger

The mother of chef Sebastien Belanger said she does not forgive the terrorists who ‘mutilated and killed him’.

Her 36-year-old son was drinking at the Boro Bistro when he was stabbed repeatedly in the chest.

His mother Josiane Belanger said: ‘We miss him so much, his smile, his joie de vivre. I do not forgive what they did to him.’

Originally from Angers in western France, Mr Belanger started work at the Coq d’Argent in the City and was promoted to the role of head chef. 

Australian au pair Sara Zelenak was on the ‘trip of a lifetime’ when she was stabbed to death while on a night out with a friend.

Sara Zelenak

Miss Zelenak’s mother Julie Wallace said ‘every sliding door’ put her daughter in ‘harm’s way’.

‘She was meant to be working and at the last minute she got the night off,’ Mrs Wallace said.

‘At 10pm Sara’s phone rang and her friend said ‘I’ve finished at the rugby’ and so she left her safe haven and walked out into a terrorist attack and was stabbed to death.’

Before leaving for UK in March 2017, Miss Zelenak worked with her stepfather Mark as a crane truck operator in Brisbane to save up for her trip.

Her parents have since set up Sarz Sanctuary to help other families to cope with grief.

Xavier Thomas

Xavier Thomas was walking over London Bridge with his girlfriend Christine Delcros when they were hit by the van.

The 45-year-old father-of-two was catapulted into the Thames and his girlfriend suffered life-changing injuries. His body was recovered downstream three days later.

Mr Thomas, who had arrived in London on the day of the attack, lived near Paris and worked for American Express.

Miss Delcros said: ‘Since Xavier disappeared in such tragic and traumatic circumstances our whole world has fallen apart.’

Canadian tourist Christine Archibald told her fiance Tyler Ferguson she loved him seconds before she was mowed down.

Christine Archibald

Miss Archibald and Mr Ferguson were walking across London Bridge after dinning at a nearby restaurant when the atrocity unfolded.

Her fiancé said: ‘At one point Chrissy stopped me out of nowhere, grabbed me close and gave me a passionate kiss after telling me she loved me.

‘I remember it being a warm summer’s evening and the sun had just gone down.. And then the attack took place and Chrissy was killed.

‘No words can express how I felt when this happened. I was absolutely devastated and inconsolable. Nothing has ever been the same since.’

Miss Archibald’s engagement ring was lost during the attack, but later recovered from the bridge. Mr Ferguson now wears it on a chain around his neck.