From: Rusty�Bullethole, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Times 26.9.00
Police kill mercenary who had air rifle
BY PAUL WILKINSON
A FORMER British mercenary in the Balkans died
yesterday when he was shot by police after going on the
run armed with an air rifle.
Kirk Davies, who was said to have killed 46 Serbs
while working as a sniper for Croatian special forces,
was shot by police marksmen, who cornered him outside a
hospital. Officers believed that he was armed with a
high-powered assault rifle.
Davies, 30, had threatened staff at Pinderfields
Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, as he demanded
to see a woman he believed worked there. Two hours
earlier, dressed in black, he had pointed his gun,
wrapped in camouflage netting, at a constable manning
the inquiry desk of a police station 20 miles away.
As the Police Complaints Authority began an
investigation yesterday, it emerged that Davies had a
history of unstable behaviour. He had joined the Army,
then deserted to become a mercenary in Croatia in an
attempt to live up to his father, who had filled his
head with tales of his days as an SAS hero. Three years
ago, after killing dozens of people and witnessing
horrific carnage, Davies discovered that his father's
war stories were a fantasy: his military experience was
limited to driving lorries. When he found that out,
Davies tried to attack him.
He was subsequently jailed for nine months. At an
appeal hearing in August 1997 at York Crown Court, his
barrister, Robert Collins, said that Davies's mother had
admitted to her son, "who had done things and seen
sights no other person would like to think about, that
his father's war stories of dare and do and the SAS were
a load of rubbish. Davies believed following in his
father's footsteps had led him to do terrible things and
become involved in killing. He attributes it to the
influence of his father's stories."
He suffered frequent bouts of stress and depression
and had a volatile relationship with the girlfriend from
whom he had recently split.
The events that led to his being shot began on
Sunday night when he burst into the police station in his
home town of Selby, North Yorkshire. After menacing the
desk officer he fled. About 90 minutes later, at about
10.20pm, he was seen at the Newton Lodge secure
psychiatric unit in the grounds of Pinderfields.
Andy Brown, Assistant Chief Constable of West
Yorkshire, said that he had barged his way into the
reception area. "We believe he was looking for someone
who didn't work at the secure unit but may have worked
at one of the other hospitals near by. She was a woman,
but not his wife or girlfriend."
When armed response officers arrived he was
challenged to hand over his weapon, but refused. Mr Brown
said: "He was again challenged and shots were subsequently
fired by the police." He was taken to Pinderfields and was
pronounced dead at 12.20am.
Mr Brown said: "We don't know why he went to Selby
police station and we don't know what he wanted with the
woman he asked for."
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