Wpc shooting: man arrested on plane
By Nick Britten
(Filed: 18/02/2006)
Police investigating the shooting of Pc Rachael Bown yesterday arrested a man they had named as a suspect.
Trevon Kyron Thomas, 24, was removed from a plane as it was about to take off from Heathrow airport.
Hours earlier Nottinghamshire police had sent Thomas's details to other forces.
He was arrested by Metropolitan police officers at 11am and handed over to Nottinghamshire police, who last night began to question him.
Pc Bown, who is on a ventilator in hospital, was shot in the stomach while investigating a robbery in Lenton, Nottingham, in the early hours of Tuesday.
She was looking for suspects in the area and when she stopped a man to question him, he fled. Pc Bown and her partner, an experienced officer, gave chase. When they cornered a man in Forster Street, he opened fire, hitting her just below her body armour.
It emerged yesterday that Thomas had been seen several times in the street near his home in Hyson Green in the days after the shooting.
Neighbours said that he had a public confrontation with a local man on Wednesday, which ended with the man threatening him, and had been spotted in his car several times since Pc Bown was hit.
Armed officers raided Thomas's house on Thursday but found it deserted.
Thomas was born in Trinidad but moved to Nottingham several years ago where he lived with his girlfriend, Natalie Topping. The couple are believed to have a two-year-old daughter.
A neighbour, Cim Berishaj, a Kosovan, said: "I last saw Thomas last Friday. He saw me looking at him through the window and shouted 'What are you looking at'.
"I rang the police but my English isn't so good and I'm not sure if they ever arrived.
"I didn't like him - he threatened my kids just because they went into his garden to get a ball." Thomas also allegedly had connections with a house in the Bilborough area of the city, where officers on Thursday removed a white Honda Civic.
Police described Thomas as 5ft 9in tall, of slim build, with short, cropped black hair and pierced earlobes.
He has one or more gold teeth on the right side of his mouth and speaks with a mild Caribbean accent.
Miss Bown, a probationary officer, underwent a five-hour operation after the shooting. She appeared to be recovering well, but needed further surgery on Thursday after developing a lung and chest infection. Her family has kept a vigil at her bedside, at the Queens Medical Centre, since she was injured.
Nottinghamshire police said that she was awake in her bed and her condition remained stable.
A spokesman said: "This morning the Metropolitan Police arrested a 24-year-old man in connection with the shooting of Pc Rachael Bown.
"He was arrested at Heathrow airport. He is the man Nottinghamshire detectives have been keen to trace and whose details were issued to the public earlier.
"Those details have previously been circulated to all police forces and law enforcement agencies across the country."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.
An update on the hunt for PC Rachel Brown's assailant
An update on the hunt for PC Rachel Brown's assailant
It amazes me how he was able to get on the plane, if the authorities at the airport
knew who he was, why allow to board and put the other passengers at risk?
knew who he was, why allow to board and put the other passengers at risk?
An update on the hunt for PC Rachel Brown's assailant
BBC says he had not boarded plane yet.
An update on the hunt for PC Rachel Brown's assailant
lady cop wrote: BBC says he had not boarded plane yet.
I tend to believe the Telegraph over the BBC. The BBC, being a TV channel, is under orders not to alarm the population. The Telegraph is renowned for its accuracy. It is a business paper, if it didn't report accurately, there would be many more bad decisions than there already are.
I tend to believe the Telegraph over the BBC. The BBC, being a TV channel, is under orders not to alarm the population. The Telegraph is renowned for its accuracy. It is a business paper, if it didn't report accurately, there would be many more bad decisions than there already are.