The first and possibly the worst masacre ever to occur in this country took place in Hungerford. 19th of August 1987 and Michael Ryan went on the rampage shooting anyoneand everyone at random, including my colleague and friend Roger Brereton, a fellow traffic cop working out of the Newbury office of Southern Traffic Area (STA) of Thames Vally, and responded to the orignal call because having served at Hungerford, he knew the area and had the equipment to get him there quickly to support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungerford_massacre I along with my fellow traffic cop colleagues were called down from both Readng and Taplow (the other 2 STA bases) and what we saw I can still remember vividly as if it was yesterday. In all my years in the service and all the fatal crashes and dead bodies I dealt with, Hungerford was the only incident that had what I would describe as a profound affect on me. Anyway, I raise my glass to Roger and everyone else that lost their life that day.
I am old enough to remember it TC Thoughts with you, all your colleagues and especially those that lost loved ones. RIP
This was Rogers car. (we had personal issue back in those days) There were something like 40 points of entry and 20 points of exit. It wasn't just all the bullet holes, but you can imagine the mess inside as well. Anyway, the insurance company wanted to put it back into service. Newbury refused to have it back, so the insurers said it could go to Reading. We said No way, so then Taplow were told they could have it. Anyway, they tried every base in Thames Valley (bear in mind we all knoew each other across the 3 counties so word soon spread) and eventually it got to Newport Pagnell. One of the crews said, "No problem, bring it here and we will use it, and the first time it goes out on the road, it will be put straight into a bridge on the Motorway!" Surprisingly, we never saw that car again
Bloody disgraceful that they even suggested it should go back into service. My father was in the force back then so I know how it was. Some things have changed for the better but some things for the worse. It certainly was a tragic day and many people's lives have been affected.
I lived back in NZ then. And I remember that being reported (I was a student an uni). I was amazed it looked like such a normal place when I visited it first in the 90's. Not a nice event.
So glad we live in a country where events like this are rare ( terrorists aside ). I remember this vividly at the time, serving in HM Forces, knowing what damage firearms can do.
So sorry for the loss of your friend and the victims of that horrific day. The memories and images are clearly still prevelant today. I also, even after time has passed, thank you and your colleagues for responding to a ' killing zone' call. If it wasn't for you and your colleagues he may not have 'holed up' and carried on with the slaughter. Respect to you and your colleagues, past and present.
