Gun drama ends after chase across Scotland

Press, 31 October 1977, Page 8

Gun drama ends after chase across Scotland

NZPA Edinburgh A chief constable who took the place of a woman hostage has been freed after a 240 km car dash across Scotland ended in shots being fired and the arrest of a man and a woman. The drama started when a man and a woman armed with a shotgun, entered a supermarket in Montrose, Angus, and held up the staff. The couple emerged and hijacked a parked Ford Capri containing a man and a woman and drove 48km to Dundee where they were rammed by pursuing police cars and the male hostage escaped. A shot was fired as the police approached the car and they dived for cover, before the arrival of armed officers who surrounded the Capri. The chief constable of Tayside (Mr John Little) who had been driving to a police ball in Edzell, Angus, saw the chase and joined in arriving at the crash scene when marksmen were already in position.

Then he offered himself in exchange for the woman hostage, changed from his dinner jacket into an old tweed suit he had in his car, and was joined by two detectives for the grim journey ar gunpoint in a police car. The two fugitives allowed Mr Little and the two other policemen to leave the car after they drove from Dundee to Whitletts 240 km away. The woman left the car and was arrested, followed by the gunman, who fired two shots at police cars and surrendered. A police spokesman said that the man and woman were being held in custody at Ayr police station together with a man already in custody. All three were wanted for questioning in connection with a double murder in Edgware about 10 days ago. The woman hostage, who was not named, was reunited with her husband. The police described her as “a remarkable young woman.” She was unharmed.