2010 Northumbria Police manhunt
A manhunt was conducted across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland from 3 to 10 July 2010 with the objective of apprehending fugitive Raoul Moat. After killing one person and wounding two others in a two-day shooting spree, the 37-year-old ex-prisoner went on the run for nearly a week. The manhunt concluded when Moat died by suicide having shot himself near the town of Rothbury, Northumberland, following a six-hour standoff with armed police officers under the command of the Northumbria Police.
Moat's victims were ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, her new partner Chris Brown, and police officer David Rathband. Stobbart was hospitalised and Brown was killed, while Rathband remained in hospital for nearly three weeks and was permanently blinded, before committing suicide on 29 February 2012. Moat shot the three with a sawn-off shotgun, two days after his release from Durham Prison.
After six days on the run, Moat was recognised by police and contained in the open, leading to a standoff. After nearly six hours of negotiation, Moat was shot with an experimental "wireless long-range electric shock weapon" firing electrified rounds, which proved ineffective. Moat then shot himself in the head; he was later pronounced dead at Newcastle General Hospital. Following an inquest, it was ruled by a jury that Moat's death was a suicide and Northumbria Police were found to have been at no fault.
The manhunt began after the shootings of Stobbart and Brown in the early hours of 3 July 2010 in Birtley. Nearly 22 hours later, the shooting of traffic police officer Rathband, parked in East Denton, was linked to Moat, who was believed to have held a grudge against the police after Stobbart tried to protect herself and Brown by lying to Moat that Brown was a police officer. Shortly after his release from prison, Moat posted threats to police and others on his Facebook profile.
Moat apparently targeted Rathband randomly, simply for being a police officer, although on an earlier occasion Rathband had confiscated Moat's van on the suspicion that it was not insured. Moat also made threats, in two letters and several phone calls, that he would kill any officer who attempted to stop him. Both the police and some of Moat's relatives made several appeals for Moat to give himself up for the sake of his children. After a sighting on the night of 5 July in an armed robbery at Seaton Delaval, on 6 July it was announced that Moat was believed to be in Rothbury. The manhunt remained focused there with several further suspected sightings, until the final confrontation at Riverside, Rothbury.
The manhunt lasted almost seven days, and was the largest in modern British history, involving 160 armed officers and armed response vehicles, many seconded for the operation from other police forces. Police also used sniper teams, helicopters, dogs, armoured anti-terrorist police vehicles from Northern Ireland, tracker Ray Mears, and even a Royal Air Force jet for reconnaissance. In the course of the hunt, there were several raids and false alarms across the region. With Moat believed to be sleeping rough, police found his abandoned camp-sites and property as he evaded capture. Armed guards were also posted outside Rothbury schools after police announced that they believed Moat posed a threat to the wider public. Several people were arrested during the hunt and after Moat's death, suspected of assisting him with equipment, information, and in evading capture and selecting targets.
On 5 July, Northumbria Police announced that Durham Prison had told them three days earlier that Moat intended to harm his ex-girlfriend. As a result, Northumbria Police voluntarily referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Following the final confrontation, the IPCC expanded the investigation to include the immediate events leading up to Moat's death but ruled out investigating how the manhunt itself had been conducted.
Background
Raoul Thomas Moat was a panel beater, bouncer, and tree surgeon from Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. His mother reportedly had bipolar disorder, and he and his half-brother Angus were mostly brought up by their grandmother as their mother spent much time in mental hospitals. Prior to the shootings, Moat had attempted to get psychiatric help.Between February and July 2010, Moat served an eighteen-week sentence in Durham Prison for assaulting a nine-year-old relative. A former bodybuilder, Moat was said to be tall and approximately 17 st, who was prone to "eruptions of anger". He had a young daughter with his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, who was 22 at the time of the shootings, and two other children from a previous relationship. Although Moat had been arrested twelve times resulting in charges for seven separate offences, he only had one previous conviction for common assault.
Moat apparently held a grudge against the police, whom he blamed for the collapse of his business, claiming that he had "lost everything". While in prison, Stobbart lied to him that her new partner was a police officer because she was frightened of him. Moat is known to have posted threats to police and others on social media shortly after being released from prison. He made further detailed threats in two subsequent letters and several phone calls to police stating he had no intention of harming the public but would continue to shoot police officers until he was dead.
Events
First shootings
Moat was released from Durham Prison on 1 July and allegedly arrived in the early hours of 3 July 2010 at a house in Birtley where Stobbart and her new partner, 29-year-old karate instructor Chris Brown, were visiting. Brown had moved to the area from Windsor, Berkshire, around six months previously. According to Moat, he crouched under the open window of the living room for an hour and a half, listening to Stobbart and Brown mocking him. At 2:40 am, Brown left the house to confront Moat but was shot at close range with a shotgun, and killed. Moat then fired through the living room window while Stobbart's mother was on the phone to the police. Stobbart was hit in the arm and abdomen and was taken to hospital to undergo liver surgery and put under armed guard.Second shooting
At 12:45 am on 4 July, Police Constable David Rathband was shot while sitting in a police vehicle on the roundabout of the A1 and A69 roads near East Denton. Rathband was taken to Newcastle General Hospital in a critical condition with injuries to his head and upper body. The Guardian reported that Moat had called police 12 minutes before shooting PC Rathband to taunt them and tell them what he was about to do. He did so again some 50 minutes after the shooting, during which he showed little remorse and complained the police are "not taking me seriously enough". Police responded by saying they were taking him seriously and that Brown had no connection to the police. They urged him to hand himself in for the sake of his three children.Death of victim
Just over 18 months after the shooting, David Rathband, who had struggled to come to terms with his blindness, was found hanged at his Blyth home on 29 February 2012, having committed suicide. His funeral service at Stafford Crematorium was attended by family and fellow police officers on 16 March 2012.In June, he had been due to carry the Olympic torch as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay. His daughter, Mia, who replaced him, chose to run blindfolded in tribute to her father. Rathband had spearheaded the Blue Lamp Foundation, which was started by him and his identical twin Darren whilst he was recovering from his injuries. The charity assists emergency staff injured in the line of duty.
Police response
The manhunt became one of the largest in the UK. A total of 160 armed officers were deployed to find Moat, which represented approximately 10% of those available in England and Wales at any one time.Under mutual aid arrangements, Northumbria Police is able to call on reinforcements from other forces by paying the donor force for the assistance given. The 100 specially trained armed response officers of Northumbria Police were reinforced by an additional 40 from London's Metropolitan Police, and another 20 from Cleveland, Cumbria, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Humberside, Strathclyde, and Greater Manchester combined.
On 7 July, at least ten armoured anti-terrorist vehicles from the Police Service of Northern Ireland were transported by ferry and provided to Northumbria Police for the operation. The Ministry of Defence confirmed a Royal Air Force Tornado GR4, fitted with a RAPTOR reconnaissance pod, was deployed to do night-time sweeps with an infrared camera around the Rothbury area.
Letter, sightings and appeals
On 5 July, fearful of more shootings by Moat, police mounted a raid with armed officers, dogs and a helicopter on a house in North Kenton, and also detained a man from Sunderland, although neither action found Moat.Northumbria Police confirmed they had received a 49-page letter, originally given by Moat to a friend late on 3 July, warning that they were "gonna pay for what they've done". The letter also stated that "The public need not fear me but the police should as I won't stop till I'm dead." In the letter, he stated that his children, freedom, house, then his ex-partner and their daughter, had all been taken from him. He admitted that he had issues and was running out of options, he said he was never violent towards his children.
The police relayed a message to Moat from Stobbart through the media which urged him not to continue if he still loved her and their child. Stobbart then admitted she had lied to him about seeing a police officer, because she was frightened. Sam Stobbart's half-sister reported that Moat had updated his Facebook status with a "hit list" which included her and other family members. "He's said he will take out any police that get in his way".
At a press conference on the evening of 5 July, police revealed that they believed Moat had kidnapped two men at the time of the shootings. They also requested this information be subject to a media blackout. Around 10:50 pm, a fish and chip shop at Seaton Delaval was the scene of an armed robbery by a man resembling Moat. In a press conference on the morning of 6 July, the police said they believed they had been dealing with a "complex, fast-moving hostage situation".