Police break into flat to end siege

Press, 28 December 1985, Page 5

Police break into flat to end siege

NZPA-PA London A Christmas siege at a council flat in London was ended by armed police yesterday. Hurling stun-grenades and firing shots, they crashed into the flat to grab a knifeman who had held a four-year-old girl hostage since Christmas morning, when her mother died of

stab wounds. He was hit by two bullets but not seriously injured. The girl was taken to hospital with a stab wound, believed to be only minor. Scotland Yard said that the police had decided to end the siege after the knifeman, Errol Walker, aged about 30, shouted that he was about to stab the girl, Carlene.

Twenty-nine hours earlier Walker was embroiled in a domestic row at the thirdfloor flat in west London. A woman, thought to be his wife’s step-sister, staggered from the flat and died later of injuries that had been inflicted by a knife. A six-year-old girl was rescued unharmed, but Walker kept Carlene prisoner.

Armed with a carvingknife he appeared several times on the balcony carrying the little girl. The police had been negotiating with Walker in a bid to end the siege peacefully, but when he shouted that he was going to stab the girl they moved in with stungrenades and revolvers.

Several shots were fired in the confusion before first

Carlene and then Walker were brought out to be taken away by ambulance. The strong police presence on the estate had angered some of the coloured community. Shortly after Walker was taken away by ambulance a woman carrying a knife ran out of a nearby flat towards police ranks. She was overpowered.