Two officers from South Wales Police found themselves unexpectedly in the line of fire when a man pulled out what appeared to be a large gun on them while dealing with a welfare call at his home. PC's Mike Samuel and Sam Critcher were both working on a night shift on March 5 2021 when they responded to what appeared to be an "innocuous" call from a man concerned after an argument with his partner.
Describing the call on BBC One's Critical Incident, the officers said that the man - later named as Karl Jones, of Y Rhodfa, Barry, aged 30 - called the police to ask for help after becoming concerned about the "harm he may do to himself" after the argument at home in Barry. Believing the call to be low risk, PC Samuel initially attended alone, before PC Critcher attended as "it's always better to go in two's".
And it's fortunate that they did as the incident went south very quickly. The officers said that when they arrived at Karl's property he was "visibly upset" and crying, but also appeared intoxicated. After a brief chat, the officers thought they were able to calm him down and two constables - who also happened to be in the area - were stood down, believing no danger.
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"I start to get him to the point where he's a little bit calmer and I ask if there's somewhere I can take him to look after is welfare because my concern is that he's going to be in a place, in a property on his own where he might hurt himself," said PC Samuel.
"The male was definitely agitated, I wouldn't say he was aggressive or resisting our presence, he was crying and upset," said PC Critcher, "mental health calls are quite a big part of what we have to deal with."
Before finding someone to look after him that night, or somewhere for him to go, Karl asked if he could go upstairs to use the toilet. The officers said that's when they started to feel like "something wasn't quite right" with the situation.
"My spidey senses start tingling, I don't know why but I asked Sam to put his body-worn [camera] on, something wasn't quite right as we got up the stairs," said PC Samuel," at one point he was so upset to go to deadly silent, it was the polar opposite".
After leaving the bathroom Karl headed straight into the bedroom and sat on the bed, where he appeared to not be cooperating with officers. While they continued to talk to him, Karl reached under the bed and pulled out what appeared to be a large revolver, and aimed it at both officers.
"Normally we get intelligence markers or warning markers on people and there was nothing o this guy having any sort of ammunition or firearm or anything. He then says 'it is a real gun', cocks the hammer on the pistol, points it at me and sam and asks us to get out of the house," said PC Samuel.
"I knew we had to leave, we are not equipped to deal with that as normal response officers." continued PC Critcher. Within minutes armed officers were on the scene negotiating with the man on the street who now also had what appeared to be a second weapon.
Armed officers then tasered and detailed the suspect, while officers worked to make the weapons safe. He was then detained and arrested.
"It was all quite surreal to say the least," said PC Samuel. "You don't know what you're walking into every day, nothing could have predicted that" echoed PC Critcher.
Superintendent Jason Rees of South Wales Police said: "I'm exceptionally proud of my officers involved in that incident, we ask an awful lot of police officers day in, day out to put themselves in really difficult situations and to confront danger but even this was exceptional. To go into a situation where a subject has pointed a gun at officers is just beyond comprehension. To face that and deal with it how they did, I'm just exceptionally proud."
At Newport crown court the defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
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