Police saw Derrick Bird shoot victims during Cumbria rampage - Speakerscorner

Summary

Last Wednesday, taxi driver Derreck Bird performed a mass shooting where twelve people were killed. After killing the first three victims, three unarmed policemen tried to follow Bird to stop him from killing more people. They failed and Bird succeeded in killing another nine more. The first policeman that arrived did not have a car to follow bird but was given a lift by a member of the public. They tried to follow Bird but failed because he shot two people and they stopped to help them. The two other policemen got close at one moment but had to stop following Bird because he started shooting at them.

My opinion

Since the officers were unarmed, they did not have the right equipment to stop Derrick Bird. This plus the fact the police department of Cumbria did have a fast enough vehicle on the ground to be able to chase after Derrick Bird. Of course was the incident that occurred very unsuspected, but I believe they could have done more to stop Bird if they would have had the right equipment. I am aware of the fact policemen in the United Kingdom do not carry any guns and it takes the armed police to solve these kind of incidents. Maybe this should be changed..?

Link

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/07/police-tracked-derrick-bird-cumbria-shootings