They’ve hunted me for years, now its my turn.
– from Raoul Moat’s letters
Moat had been doing a lot of thinking. Now that his adrenalin had subsided, and his name and his picture had been broadcast across the TV and taken up column inches in newspapers, he was not happy with the way his actions were portrayed as a ‘grudge’. Moat did not like to be misunderstood. His friends knew that and he decided to call on one of them that night.
Andy McAllister was watching TV at his home in Kenton late on Saturday night when he heard a knock on the door. He had known Moat previously, but he was the last person McAllister expected to hear from, given the drama he, along with the rest of the British public, had seen unfolding on the news. He was about to get the shock of his life. When the dad-of-five opened the door he saw Moat standing outside, waiting to talk to him. McAllister could not quite believe his eyes, for he had been following the story of the murder of Chris Brown and the shooting of Sam Stobbart all day. Moat wanted to come in.
Raoul was wearing jeans, a cream coloured tee shirt and a military style hat, and was very calm, saying that he wanted to explain his side of the story before things were twisted any further. He said that in the early hours he had sat under the window and had to listen as the group inside talked about him and laughed. He’d grown angrier as the minutes passed and then he had snapped, unable to take anymore.
McAllister listened as he talked and it struck him how measured Moat was. His visitor did not raise his voice or remonstrate, there was an eerie distance as he recounted all that he had done. McAllister was blunt. He told Moat that he should hand himself in and that he would accompany him to the station if that would help. But the gunman said: ‘No I’ve got nothing left Andy – and I fully intend to take as many police as I can with me.’
It was a chilling turn in Moat’s thinking. He asked McAllister for a mobile phone to allow him to speak to the police, and shortly after midnight he walked back out into the night.
David Rathband didn’t grow up on Tyneside, he is originally from Stafford but he was proud to serve the Northumbria police force and had done so for the last 10 years. Married with two children, he enjoyed his work although he realised it had its risks and exposed you to some of the worst aspects of human nature.
He knew about the events of the previous evening at Birtley and was stationed at the roundabout where the A1 meets the A69 in his marked police car, a Volvo, when he decided to send a text to his wife Kath. He knew the roundabout well and often chose that particular spot to wait at, since it was the place where arterial roads in and out of the city met, and provided an ideal vantage point to view any traffic incidents which might be taking place.
PC Rathband had been parked there for over an hour watching traffic, observing all the usual comings and goings of an early Sunday morning, as revellers from Saturday night made their way home, and he thought it was relatively quiet given that it was a summer’s evening. Rathband knew that Moat was on the run and, by then, all units were aware of the registration details of the car that they suspected Moat might be using. On-board computers meant that with automatic numberplate recognition, PC Rathband would be alerted should Moat drive by. He thought that it was a possibility, as the roundabout stands close to Birtley and near to where Moat would try to escape from the city, down the M6 for example, assuming he was planning to go to ground.
In reality, experience had taught Rathband that the chances of spotting Raoul Moat were slim. Police work is very often about patience and endeavour, but surveillance work, where the suspect has not been pinned to an exact location, is often fruitless. It was all about luck. Not that he was wasting his time. Moat was one offender, but there were any number of other crimes being committed in the city that night that would also need detecting.
It was coming up to quarter-to-one in the morning and he and his wife had finished texting each other about their daughter’s birthday party. Kath Rahband knew about Moat’s rampage too and asked her husband to be careful. She’d been clearing out a cupboard at home and they’d joked with one another that that would be a good place to hide from any gunman. As he placed his phone in the car’s door compartment, the policeman had a feeling that someone was watching him.
As he looked up, he saw a man jogging over to his car from only a few feet away. He reasoned that the jogger must have emerged from behind one of the concrete pillars and realised that it was Raoul Moat. It was only when he was approaching the car that Rathband saw that Moat had something in his hands. The officer started to process this rush of information. The oncoming man was holding the stock of the shotgun with his right hand, its barrel with his left.
He saw the man slow as he reached the car. The gunman was facing the passenger side window and he raised his weapon. All this action concertinaed into seconds, and PC Rathband was aware that his life was in danger. Moat fired the gun between the officer’s eyes. PC Rathband felt his face explode. The noise was deafening and of such intensity that the victim believed it was the noise alone that was causing him such excruciating pain.
The shotgun had discharged 200 pieces of shot directly into his face and PC Rathband experienced unbearable pain from the top of his head to his throat. He sensed straightaway that his right eye had been irreparably damaged by the discharge – it was almost as if it had been sucked out by the force of the blast. And he knew instinctively that he would never see from it again.
Rathband had been thrown into the foot-well of the car but he still had his seatbelt on and he began to try to remove it. He knew that he must summon help, but was also aware that the inside of the patrol car was illuminated. That meant that Moat could see what he had done but would also be witness to Rathband’s frantic efforts to raise the alarm.
The injured man sat up and started to fumble for the button on his car’s screen that would relay an emergency message: it would also activate the car, making the cab ‘live’, allowing Rathband to communicate with his colleagues, who would be able to hear what was happening. It was at this point that Rathband realised that his attacker was still there, watching him. The blinded man could not see and he could not find the emergency button. Moat raised the gun again.
Instinct took over, as Rathband raised his left hand to his face. He had pivoted slightly in his seat and that meant that the second shot entered his shoulder. The police officer knew then that Moat was intent on killing him. He slumped to the side in an effort to play dead. He was aware that he could hear strange noises and then realised that it was the result of blood and air evacuating from the injures in his face. He made a huge effort to hold his breath and try to remain motionless.
Moat then walked away but Rathband remained still. He was fortunate that he had managed to grasp the police radio and had to wait in frustration as he heard another colleague relay a message before he could raise the alarm – the radio permits only one transmission at a time. Eventually he was able to pick up the carrier signal and he broadcast that he needed urgent assistance as he’d been shot. He listened to the radio traffic and he heard a voice he knew asking, ‘Can you GPS David?’ All cars can be located via GPS but the system can be slow. That urged Rathband on, he felt that he could summon the strength to radio in his exact location. He pushed open his door and heard sirens approaching. He also knew that if he could hear them, Moat could too.
Moments earlier, a taxi driver drove onto the roundabout heading from the A69. He had heard the shot through his open window and saw a man jogging away from a police patrol car and towards a black car parked on the slip road.
The car drove off and the taxi driver rushed to the patrol car – he could see the police officer had been badly wounded but as he did not have any medical training he knew that he was not in a position to help. He wasn’t even sure if the policeman was alive but saw an ambulance and gave chase: he knew he had to stop it and so flashed his lights and blasted his horn until it pulled over.
By the time the taxi driver returned to the roundabout, the ambulance having raced ahead of him, the scene had been transformed. PC Rathband’s radio alert meant that a number of armed police and response cars had arrived. A gunman was on the loose but the first concern had to be for David Rathband; there were two hundred shotgun pellets in his skull and as he was being treated at the roadside by paramedics, the fear was that the gunshot had caused severe and lasting damage. Rathband was not sure if he would survive and asked the medic treating him to tell his wife and children that he loved them.
He was taken to Newcastle General Hospital and that left a number of personnel still gathered at the roundabout. One thought was on everyone’s mind. If Moat was responsible for this attack, then that meant that the murder enquiry had taken on a new and worrying dimension: Moat was targeting police officers.
Those leading the enquiry would learn later that the news that a fellow officer had been shot came in only approximately 10 minutes after Moat had put down the phone, after concluding a call to other officers. Moat had spoken for around six minutes, outlining his grievances against the police. It was not the only call he was to make that night. At 1.35am, he dialled 999 again and complained that the police were not taking him seriously enough.
But Moat was wrong. Northumbria Police was taking Raoul Thomas Moat very seriously indeed.
The police were under pressure to release information about the case and a statement was issued. It read:
A Northumbria Police Officer has been seriously injured after being attacked by an armed man described as dangerous.
At 12.45am today (Sunday, July 4) police received reports of an incident on the Western Bypass at East Denton, Newcastle.
A uniformed motor patrols officer was carrying out static patrol on the roundabout which adjoins the A1 and the A69.
He was approached by a man who was armed. The officer suffered a gunshot wound and was taken to Newcastle General Hospital where his condition is described as serious but not thought to be life-threatening at this time.
Police strongly believe that this shooting is linked to the incident in Gateshead in the early hours of Saturday morning, during which a man was killed and a woman seriously injured.
We are currently following up several lines of enquiry. All available police resources and tactics are being used.
Temporary Chief Constable Sue Sim said: ‘This was an unprovoked attack on a Northumbria Police officer as he carried out his duty. My thoughts are with his family and colleagues at this time.
‘We strongly believe that this was carried out by the same man who shot two people in Gateshead early yesterday morning.
‘Raoul Thomas Moat is a wanted man. He is very dangerous and should not be approached by members of the public.
‘We know that Moat held a grudge against the people he targeted in Gateshead yesterday. It is now believed his grudge at the moment is with the police.’
It was clear that the calls allowed Raoul Moat to air his grievances but that was not where his attempt to justify his actions ended. Far from it. Moat sat down and wrote a letter and then he decided to deliver it to Andy McAllister’s house in person. It seemed an extraordinary thing to do. As he approached PC Rathband’s patrol car and took the conscious decision to shoot the officer, Moat’s system would have been flooded with adrenalin. It is almost impossible to imagine how he could find paper and a pen, and then sit down to start writing out his thoughts. The letter would amount to 49 pages – there are few mistakes and the handwriting is legible. This was not a briefly dashed off note and in it, Moat sets out a good deal about the way he viewed his situation and gives an invaluable insight into how his mind worked. The Sun newspaper exclusively published the letter:
On the night 3/7/10 I shot Chris Brown and Samantha Stobbart, after an argument earlier that evening, and here I will make all the facts clear so there is no missunderstanding about the events which took place and, the build up to these events…
Hid under Jackie’s window and waited. For an hour and a half, I listened to them mocking me.
It was hurtful listening to Sam, especially after nearly six years. They had opened a window and I could hear everything.
If I was ever going to back down, listening to them stopped that.
At 2.30am, they came out. I shot him in the chest and he ran off. Sam screamed and tried to stop me as I gave chase.
I fired the second and he went down. I pointed the gun at Sam to chase her and she ran off.
I reloaded two customised rounds. Sam’s was half the powder, with small-gauge pellets. With a superficial injury she would get massive compensation payout for her, inadvertently providing for me when I’m gone.
And there would be small scarring, reminding her not to ever do this to anyone again. How could she have done this to me? I put the third round into his head and went to the window and fired at Sam. It hit but she seemed OK but I paused to be sure. She crawled to the kitchen quickly and hid behind the door.
I looked around for anyone else to shoot, there was no one, looked back at Sam, went to shoot myself, then changed my mind.
It’s like the Hulk, it takes over and it’s more than anger and it happens only when I’m hurt, and this time I was really hurt.
I’ve slept one hour per night for weeks now. It feels like I’m watching a film, not real at all.
Moat wanted it made known that he felt provoked by Sam. He wrote long passages in the letter about how much she had meant to him, that Sam fulfilled him as no other woman had. In his mind then, the ‘fall’ Sam took was from a very considerable height. Here was a woman he imagined would make him whole and yet she betrayed him when he felt that he needed her support most – when he was ‘taking a stand’ and going to prison to prove that he was willing to fight for the truth as he saw it.
The police receive a good deal of attention in the letters too, for what Moat saw as their persecution of him. He wrote:
Looking at my arrests you can draw only one conclusion, but again 90% is rubbish, with many being stitch ups. Most of what I’ve done I’ve gotten away with, no arrest. I can now say that I’ve been a bad lad, but the arrests are the untrue side of that, and is mostly the police being witch hunters…The crimes I have committed are to people who have wronged me in some way.
For Moat, this helped underpin his conviction that he had been poorly treated by the police but there was a more vehement statement to follow. He continued:
Last night I called 999 and declared war on Northumbria Police before shooting an officer on the West End A69 roundabout in his T5. Sitting there waiting to bully someone.
Probably a single mum who couldn’t afford her car tax.
Rang again and told them they’re gonna pay for what they’ve done to me and Sam. I went straight but they couldn’t let it go.
The public need not fear me but the police should as I won’t stop till I’m dead.
This is an attempt to shift blame and muddy the waters as to why he acted as he did. He shot a defenceless officer but in his mind, the police had brought retribution on themselves. He did not act out of fury for himself he stresses, but he was championing the defenceless, the lone mums who’d been singled out because they can’t afford car tax. Yet there was another single mother in his thoughts of course, one he had shot 24 hours earlier and he does feel remorse, yet even this is couched in threat. He writes:
Those doctors better save her or I’ll hit that hospital. I still love her despite everything but my head is a mess right now and I know I’m too far gone to make much sense of it.
I guess I’ve finally lost it. I’m not on the run, I will keep killing police until I am dead.
They’ve hunted me for years, now it’s my turn.
I am very sorry about Sam and wish I hadn’t shot at her. Just make sure she stays alive.
I never cheated on her, I wish she hadn’t on me. She pulled the trigger by doing so just as much as me.
The police were in no doubt now that they were dealing with a man who felt he had lost everything and was willing and able to act on his violent threats. By 6am Northumbria Police told the press that the shootings of PC Rathband, Samantha Stobbart and Chris Brown were linked and Raoul Moat was a ‘wanted man’.
By that afternoon, they knew a great deal more about Moat and a strategy not only of how to capture him but how best to communicate to him was being devised. At 2pm, the police made a direct appeal to Moat and urged him to hand himself in for the sake of his three children. One of them, Chanel, his youngest, had a mother in hospital who had been seriously wounded by her father.
Sam was in surgery for five hours as the team fought to stabilise her condition, examine the extent of her injuries and begin repairs. She had serious internal injuries and if her arm had absorbed some of the shot’s impact, the blast’s full force could have killed her.
The appeal did not result in Moat handing himself in. He was now the focus of a growing manhunt but, of course, Raoul had written that he was not on the run. He was at war but was not hiding from them, and he was prepared to die. He was a mission killer.
Organising a ‘hunt’ in such circumstances is a fraught affair. Officers were targets, even following standard procedures and making house-to-house enquires could now expose them as ‘soft targets’. The enquiry into his whereabouts held considerable risks. Moat could be anywhere. Or nowhere.