Re: Navy Teo Chee Hean & his SAF BG politicians can do this? UK politician save subma
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ting-councillor-wrestled-gunman-to-floor.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...ting-councillor-wrestled-gunman-to-floor.html
video interview at above URL
HMS Astute shooting: councillor wrestled gunman to floor
A rating guarding Britain’s flagship nuclear submarine who shot dead a Royal Navy officer and left another critically injured was wrestled to the ground and disarmed by civic dignitaries who were on a tour of the craft.
By Thomas Harding, Gordon Rayner, Victoria Ward and Andrew Hough 7:30AM BST 09 Apr 2011
Able seaman Ryan Donovan, who was wearing body armour and camouflage gear, fired several rounds before he was overpowered by Royston Smith, the leader of Southampton city council.
Councillor Smith, 46, said he reacted after he felt a bullet whistle past his head.
Sources said the rating, a London-born warfare specialist trained in tracking vessels, had just collected the rifle from the submarine’s weapons store as he came on guard duty, and was due to take up his sentry position on the gangplank when the row erupted.
The 22 year-old sailor who was held at the scene on suspicion of murder is understood to have opened fire with an SA80 assault rifle at 12.12pm after a row broke out in the control room of HMS Astute, which was berthed in the city.
On Friday night the dead officer, in his 30s, was named by sources as Lt-Cdr Ian Molyneux, the vessel’s weapons engineering officer.
The married father of three boys and a girl had been in the Navy for more than two decades and was due to transfer to the Navy's second Astute class submarine, HMS Ambush.
According to a profile on a social networking site, Lt-Cdr Molyneux, worked in Scotland during the week and lived in Wigan, Lancs with his wife Gillian, a sport studies lecturer at Wigan & Leigh College.
"I thought I would have travelled the world but I have only visited a few places however I have seen it all underwater," he wrote. Lieutenant Commander Chris Hodge was in a critical condition on Friday night.
Several VIP guests, including Cllr Smith, were on board at the time, and a party of schoolchildren was standing on the dockside waiting to board the vessel when the shooting happened.
Cllr Smith, a former RAF engineer, told last night how he wrestled the gunman, who was less than five yards away, to the ground and disarmed him. He denied he was a "hero".
"The gunman ... appeared with all his gear on which didn't alarm me in itself," he said.
"He then stepped back a couple of steps and disappeared from view again. That was when he fired the first couple of shots which I heard ring out.
"He came back into the control room and he fired the third and fourth shots. They were reasonably close and I heard a hiss which meant one had flown just passed me."
Mr Smith, who was a non-commissioned officer in the RAF, added: "There was a lot of blood, it really wasn't nice – I thought he was going to kill all of us."
"I then took the decision that if that bullet hadn't hit me, one was about to and, if not me, anyone and everyone else.
"I charged at him, pushed him against the wall and, at the same time got hold of his weapon. At that point I think he fired shot number five. We had a tussle and I think I was shouting quite a lot. My instinct was to make myself scary.
"I spun him 180 degrees and charged him against the other wall which I think we hit quite hard. I think it was around this time that shot number six went off.
Mr Smith, who suffered bruises to his legs and back and a cut to his head, but did not require medical treatment, said he managed to pull the rifle away and throw it out of the gunman's reach.
As other dignitaries stood around him in shock, he yelled for the city Alistair Neill, council chief executive, to help.
He added: "I shouted for Alistair to get on top of the gunman because he was thrashing around – he wasn't going to take it lying down.
"I don't feel like a hero, I wish it hadn't happened."
One source told The Daily Telegraph: “It appears this rating got into an argument then just went crazy and began shooting people. He has not served in Afghanistan so it doesn’t appear to be related to combat stress like post-traumatic stress disorder.”
The Ministry of Defence insisted that the incident had not caused a wider threat to public safety.
Astute, the most sophisticated hunter-killer vessel in the world, is guarded by its own crew when it is in port. They are usually issued with sidearms at the head of the gangplank as they come on duty.
John Denham, the MP for Southampton Itchen and a former cabinet minister, said: ''In due course I will be asking ministers to ensure this incident is fully explained with complete openness about any potential risk to the public.”
Dr Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, said his “thoughts and sympathies” were with the families of the victims.
