THE 999 call comes in just after 6am on a Sunday morning from a woman reporting she has just seen two men, one with what looks like an AK-47 rifle, making threats to kill.
Within minutes armed officers from Bedfordshire Police surround the block of flats, where the suspects have already barricaded themselves in a flat.
Suddenly one of the men emerges with the weapon and fires at an unarmed police officer.
Now these terrifying events are laid bare in the latest episode of hard-hitting documentary 24 Hours In Police Custody, which returns to Channel 4 this Sunday.
It features unprecedented access to the operation suite during the live 14-hour siege – sparked by a cold takeaway – which saw a delivery driver taken hostage.
The call-out fee for the raid was an eye-watering £85,000.
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Superintendent Steve Ashdown, who was in charge of the operation, says: “I have been a firearms commander now for approaching 10 years, and it’s the first one I have been involved with like that… It was a very unusual trigger, it’s fair to say.”
Steve, 55, who joined the force in 1996, was on-call the day of the major incident last November, and had been due to go shopping with his wife.
He says: “When you get that call, you have to drop everything.”
It is quickly categorised as a major incident and intelligence comes in that the two suspects are believed to be Paul Burton, 45, and Nathan Turner, 37, who live in the flats at Bury Court on the outskirts of Bedford.
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Delivery driver held hostage
Footage emerges of Burton live streaming on Facebook, complaining to police that his takeaway delivery driver “failed at his job” and his kebab arrived late – and missing salad.
The incident began around 3am on November 27 last year.
The men, who had both been drinking and taking drugs, confronted the delivery driver as he arrived on the eighth floor of the flats, placing a coffee table across the lift door to trap him inside.
They kept him prisoner for two hours.
A neighbour reveals how she went to complain about the loud music they were playing before being threatened by Burton with a black rifle.
He also warned officers: “You try even come through my f*****g door. I will kill your coppers in a heartbeat.”
As well as body cam footage from officers on the scene, cameras follow Steve as he commands the operation.
He says: “We do regular training. It’s a lot of effort to sustain your skills.
“You’re trying to take in a lot of information that starts to present itself to the Operation Centre, trying to assess what all of that means and how to bring about a peaceful conclusion, which means you have to be on your toes.”
Both men suffered from mental health issues. Referencing their extreme reaction to the late takeaway, Steve says: “When you link into mental health conditions and the other stuff going on for those two suspects at the time, it feels like the final straw.”
‘Lethal’ weapon
CCTV footage also shows the weapon has been professionally set up and could potentially be lethal.
Steve makes the decision to secure the block and evacuate residents. A negotiator is also deployed to the scene to try to speak to the pair.
Steve says: “I was in a two-way dialogue with the negotiator. They tell me what’s happening from their perspective. There were one or two moments where she could gain their trust.
“Negotiators are very well trained. I admire the work they do.”
But the situation escalates when, at 8.45am, Burton fires at a police car’s windscreen, narrowly avoiding a dog handler who feared for his life.
Steve says: “Ultimately, I was responsible for everything that happens on the ground. So firstly, my immediate thought was for the officer, ‘Is he ok? Is he safe? Is he injured?’
“But once I had that reassurance, I had to make sure any risk was diminished rather than increased.”
Flat full of pythons
Steve places an armed officer with a “long barrelled weapon” in position to take a shot if necessary.
He explains: “It was more of a contingency than a tactic we would use.”
Reports come in that both men suffer from mental health issues.
Following a tense stand-off, the pair eventually left the flat and surrendered just before 6pm.
Officers found the weapon, which had been modified, in a wardrobe. There were also several pythons and other reptiles in the flat, which were later re-homed.
The call-out fee for getting the extra services involved totalled £85,000 and included the use of drone equipment, which Steve says is “quite an effective way of observing what’s happening” while minimising any risk to officers.
He adds: “It was a lot of money from the public purse. That cost was shared across the police, and our partners in the fire service and the local council in terms of the actual financial commitment.”
While it was “an additional burden” he feels it was justified when “weighed against the safe and successful resolution”.
Burton was later jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and two charges of possessing a firearm without a certificate.
Turner was admitted to affray and four charges of criminal damage, and was sentenced to 20 months.
Steve says of the tense siege: “Like with every other firearms incident, there is a sense of achievement and relief at a successful resolution.
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“All the residents were kept safe and no officers came to harm, which is not always a guarantee for police officers, sadly. There was a sense of professional pride.”
24 Hours In Police Custody is available to watch or stream on Channel 4 on Sunday December 3 at 9pm.
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Emma Pietras
