From: Rusty�Bullethole, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Express 19.10.00 Shot sniper wanted to be killed by the police EXCLUSIVE BY HARRY COOKE AN ex-mercenary shot dead by police deliberately provoked officers in a bid to get himself killed. Army deserter Kirk Davies, who had a violent past, is believed to have planned his suicide by copying a trend in the US. An increasing number of people, including army veterans, are dying there in gunfights with the law. They are dubbed "police- assisted suicides." The latest was in New York. Davies, 30, who had a spell as a sniper during the war in Yugoslavia, is thought to have read about the incidents in specialist magazines which he had sent to him from abroad. When he died after being cornered in a wood, Davies was armed with an air rifle draped with camouflage webbing to make it look like an assault weapon. Only 24 hours before his death he had walked, dressed all in black, into a police station at Selby, North Yorks, and levelled a weapon at the desk sergeant. Davies had discussed such a confrontation with a long-serving police officer. They met in a pub where Davies, who triggered an armed alert across two counties, insisted on going through the likely eventualities of such a clash with police. A police chief said: "He asked whether a helicopter would be used in the search and what would happen to anyone who faced up to police in this way. He was told it would be stupidity and that anyone acting like this was almost certain to be shot. "He was discussing his own suicide but there was nothing the officer could do at the time. He told Davies not to be silly, dismissing it as the talk of someone who'd had too much to drink." A police spokesman said: "Davies was known in the area for bragging about his fighting exploits and making wild threats and claims. There would be no reason to take him seriously." Davies, father of a two-year-old boy, drove from Selby, where he lived, to a secure psychiatric unit near Wakefield, 30 miles away. Police were alerted after he asked to see a woman he mistakenly believed was working there. He was challenged about the weapon he was carrying but fled along a dirt track into woods. He was challenged again and shots were fired by police. Davies died hours later in Pinderfields hospital, Wakefield, from a single wound to the abdomen. He had been inspired from childhood by his father's stories of thrilling military service with the SAS. Davies served with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment in Ulster, Canada and the Falklands before deserting to seek adventure in the Balkans. He returned to Yorkshire when his mother revealed that his father had only been a truck driver with the Royal Corps of Transport and had never seen action. Davies went berserk, smashing up his father's car with an iron bar and a machete. At the time he was wearing a Croatian army uniform, York Crown Court was told in l997. The hearing heard about his gruesome record of service with the Croatian special forces and was told that he was haunted by the faces of his 46 victims, including children. A nine-month jail sentence was reduced to two years probation on appeal after a judge was told that Davies suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. He later worked as a security guard and labourer, living with his partner Kathryn Wadsworth, 38, at Osgodby, near Selby. A neighbour said: "He hated authority and was always threatening to do something or other. "We weren't sorry to see the back of him. He was always making people feel uncomfortable, as if he could blow up any time." His death is now being investigated by the Police Complaints Authority. -- I thought it had already been established that he wasn't a sniper? Steve. Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
