Attending a run-of-the-mill attempted burglary in Telford town centre turned terrifying for two police officers when the wannabe burglar brandished what they believed to be a gun.
On Saturday, February 22, at around 10pm, PC Dan Arthur and PC George Oliver responded to a report of a man - now known to be 37-year-old Matthew Sylvester - using a trolley to try and break into a store.
Unbeknownst to the officers, Sylvester was preparing for police arrival. When he learnt police were on their way, he made his way to a nearby trolley park, where he used a jumper to cover his face and forged an object to mimic a handgun.
00:00The father's in the pool, he knows what's gone on, he's come out basically holding what looks like a gun.
00:06When we've gone into the car park and we've gone, oh he's got a gun, what do we do next?
00:13With red buttons they've gone right and declared it a firearms incident.
00:17And when it gets declared you've got to leave.
00:19But we're trying to leave, but we can't leave.
00:22Yeah, so on the 22nd of February we were called to a job, regardless of someone trying to break into ****, and the mention of a gun.
00:29We've come through the barriers of the car park, and there's like a wall that's blocking your view off when you come through the barriers.
00:35And as we've driven past and come to the end of the wall, we can see to our right there is someone fully masked up, all in black.
00:45And they're pointing something at us that looked like a gun.
00:48So when he's gone down to the trolleys prior to our arrival, he's wrapped, I think it was a jumper around his face.
00:55And then he's almost like started to, it looks like he's like psyching himself up.
00:59He starts bouncing up and down.
01:01Like he then starts posing, kicking the trolleys, mimicking almost exactly the same thing as he's done when he's come up to the police car.
01:10Sort of takes a minute to engage with what's going on.
01:14And there's sort of a figure, a person, all balaclavered up, masked up, pointing something at the car, which you don't really want to take chances with.
01:23The second he's seen the car, he's just started sprinting towards the car, but still holding it out like that.
01:27He was shouting at us, I've got a gun, I'm going to shoot you, I've got a gun.
01:31So I told Dan like, we need to get out of here as quick as we can.
01:36So we drove off and he kept on following the car, but then we got to the barriers the other side, where we couldn't get out of.
01:43We're trained in dealing with lots of things and aggressive people, but we're not firearms officers.
01:49To be honest, it felt like quite a while in the car.
01:52I was looking over my shoulder.
01:54Give me a commentary.
01:55I was like, mate, he's getting pretty close to us with this gun now.
02:00And then he's at the car, he's at your side and the passenger side, and then starts kicking the door.
02:06We're looking at each other and basically thinking...
02:08I looked at you, didn't I? I just went, right, now what?
02:10Now what, what do we do?
02:11And then we sort of have that, you're almost having a conversation, actually having a conversation.
02:15And then he's gone round to the back of the car and for some reason decided to open the boot.
02:20And then I think that's sort of the point that we've both decided, we'll get out.
02:25Once we got out of the car, we sprayed, I sprayed him first while he was looking at you.
02:30Yeah.
02:31And then Dan, you got yours out.
02:32I got mine out.
02:33He started running away.
02:34I managed to grab my arm around him and got him on the floor.
02:39We just thought we'd try and get him into a position where we can properly search him and make sure that we're safe
02:44and any other officers that are coming would be safe as well.
02:47So, once we've got him secured, I think that's when we've sort of unravelled
02:51and realised that, you know, he's just sort of adapted something in a way that would, you know,
02:57quite easily mimic a firearm.
02:59Well, we then thought we need to idea who this person is, so we've taken his face off.
03:03And that was when we realised it's Mike Sylvester.
03:06We know that he's got a history of trying to assault police officers.
03:11Looking back on it, it's like it's in slow motion.
03:13But at the time, I remember thinking, you've got so many things going on at once
03:17and you're trying to think of yourself, you're just trying to think of how to deal with the job as well.
03:20You've got that much going on in your head.
03:22It almost gets quite overwhelming.
03:24Reflecting on it, I don't think there's much we would have done differently
03:27to how we acted with the kit we've got, the training we've got.
03:30You know, it's a pretty traumatic...
03:33Not traumatic, but it's a pretty stressful situation to be in.
03:36Because you're obviously...
03:37It's one of the few times, and I think you're probably the same,
03:39where you thought, I hope I make it back.
03:42That's probably the only job I've been to in my experience at the police.
03:48Well, I've genuinely...
03:50Yeah, when he's at the side of the window and I'm sat in the car thinking,
03:53I might not actually be going home tonight.
03:56We've got no reason to believe that isn't real.
03:58You know, you hear about all these stories of people that want to do police harm
04:03and, you know, there's terror attacks and stuff like that.
04:07So that's all going through your head, like when it's happening,
04:09going, oh, is this actually real?
04:11Is this the time that we do get caught out?
04:14But I think, like, after it's happened, you just have to look and go,
04:17actually, these things don't happen that often.
04:20Mate, keep your hands out of anywhere, alright?
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