Officer: 'Only Option Was To Shoot'

A police officer has told an inquest he had no option but to shoot when he was confronted with a robber at a petrol station.

29-year-old Marc Alexander Ringland died in hospital after being shot in the chest by the officer.

He had carried out the robbery at a petrol station on the Albert bridge Road in east Belfast last February.

Mr Ringland was a father of one from Calvin Street in east Belfast.

He was shot as he fled the premises by an off-duty policeman who had been buying petrol on his way to a night shift.

The officer said: "I felt he was going to stab me. He was only two metres from me. He knew what was going to happen. I felt my only option was to shoot."

The policeman gave evidence from behind a screen and was named only as Officer A.

He told the inquest it was his duty to prevent the crime. He also said he believed the lives of those in the petrol station were at risk.

"I was concerned for their lives. I believed an armed man was in the shop. I believed someone could have been injured," he added.

The jury of eight men and two women were again shown the CCTV footage of the robbery. The footage showed Mr Ringland flash a knife at a shop assistant before looting money.

Mr Ringland had 133 convictions including for robbery.

The policeman in question had four years’ service with the PSNI and had completed firearms training in December 2010.

(IT)