The use of weapons better known to medieval England in London continues, with a man carrying a crossbow shot dead by police in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Metropolitan Police firearms officers responded to reports of a man with a crossbow trying to force his way inside a home and shot the suspect dead in Southwark, London in the early hours of Tuesday.
The force said they had received reports of a man carrying “weapons including a crossbow” threatening to harm residents and after local police were unable to reason with the suspect, firearms officers were dispatched.
At the time of the police statement of the matter, the man shot dead had not been identified and the force said they were working to identify his next of kin. Two occupants of the house involved also received minor injuries.
Police officers at the scene near Bywater Place in Surrey Quays, south east London, where a man has died after being shot by armed police responding to calls for help in the early hours of this morning. A man aged in his 30s who was reportedly armed with a crossbow trying to force his way into a building in Bywater Place just before 5am on Tuesday and was threatening to hurt the people inside. Picture date: Tuesday January 30, 2024. (Photo by Lucy North/PA Images via Getty Images)
Detective Chief Superintendent Seb Adjei-Addoh said he understood the local community would be concerned at the events and said his officers would support an Independent Office of Police Conduct investigation into the fatal shooting.
It is standard practice for the Office to investigate where police action leads to the death of a member of the public, or where a firearm is discharged by officers.
The crossbow incident is one of many uses of weapons in London’s ongoing crime crisis, in a city where British law forbids firearms in almost all circumstances but criminals find a way nevertheless. As reported last month, 2023 saw knife crime surge, with over 40 incidents logged by police per day. Gun crime also rose six per cent over the previous year.
Per a paper by the Action on Armed Violence campaign group, there were an “estimated 103 homicides that occurred in Greater London in 2023, marked by a concerning trend in violent crimes”. Breaking down the killings, the report stated 67 people were stabbed to death and eight shot.