Police surround house in Devizes after attempt is made to stab officer

12:00pm Thursday 9th August 2012 in News

Police surround house in Devizes after attempt is made to stab officer Police surround house in Devizes after attempt is made to stab officer

Police were involved in a three-and-a-half-hour stand-off in Devizes after an attempt was made to stab a police officer.

Officers went to the detached house in Brickley Lane, which had been separated into flats, shortly before 8pm on Thursday to arrest a man suspected of breaching a restraining order. The man had barricaded himself in the flat so PC Adam Hall went to an open window and engaged the suspect in conversation, putting his hands on the window sill.

While he was doing this, it is alleged that the man produced a kitchen knife and attempted to stab PC Hall in the hand. The officer managed to pull his hand away but the knife nicked the back of his glove.

Officers were withdrawn to a safe distance, other residents in the flats were evacuated for safety and all traffic movements along Brickley Lane were stopped.

Then began the stand-off with a police negotiator brought in.

Inspector Ron Peach of Devizes police said: “His movements continued to be monitored inside the house for some time and a police negotiator attended while other officers contained the incident, making sure that no one else was at risk.”

Eventually, at 11.22pm, police entered the property after the man was thought to have fallen asleep.

Police said they had arrested a 37-year-old local man who was charged with assault on a police officer in the execution of his duty and breach of a restraining order. Although he appeared before magistrates the following day, police are not releasing his name as he is thought to have mental health issues.

He was remanded in custody until his next appearance before Salisbury magistrates on August 18.

Neighbours said they were amazed at the number of officers who attended Thursday night’s incident.

Phil Blake said: “We had half the Wiltshire force turn out. At one stage I counted 13 cars, also dogs, riot shields and two armed cops.”

Lindsey Smith said: “We wanted to go shopping but couldn’t get out. But the police were very good and let us through. One said, you shouldn’t be a prisoner in your own home.

“We’ve had trouble with that chap before, but nothing like this.”

A mum of small children, who asked not to be named, said: “You can’t help but feel sorry for him, but when you’ve got young children it is a bit worrying.”

Comments(5)

OhThisIsFun says...
12:11pm Thu 9 Aug 12

Devizes, how things have changed for you in the last 10 years..

I blame the overspill from Swindon !

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underdogs says...
12:48pm Sat 11 Aug 12

Not in this case maybe, but it may also have something to do with the fact Wiltshire provides housing for ex offenders from many other counties here - and receives payment for them so I am told ? We hear about al the 'cuts' a over the country, so why are our agencies making things worse for us when they cant cope already ? We are reading in our dailys that one in three crimes arent being investigated now by the Police, and reading it can take weeks for an officer ( or PCSOs NOW ! ) to arrive if you do report a crime ! Nice to see the neighbour felt sorry for the guy, suspecting he had mental health problems, but many of us know AWP the NHS mental health provider has many long term issues with providing an adequate service in our area, and those with mental ill health wait months, even years in the hope of receiving treatment - with the likelehood of their mental health deteriorating in the meantime - thereby causing problems and more expense for society in general. If only Wiltshire was managed properly !

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Adam Hall says...
5:26pm Sat 1 Sep 12

How many more of these deranged psychopaths do we have wandering around the Town I wonder? There's no way of telling how many wackjobs the NHS are covertly filling our communities up with, or how dangerous they are. This man was obviously seriously dangerous judging by the amount of Police that responded. The Police obviously know who the looneys are, and respond accordingly, but it's often too late to stop whatever they're doing, and this puts normal people in potentially deadly situations, with no disclosure of these people. I presume this one fell through the normal "risk assessment" protocols so we're lucky no-one was injured, or even killed.

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underdogs says...
9:23pm Sat 1 Sep 12

Adam, this has been going on for very many years - not only in Devizes but throughout the county. It appears wher we have low RECORDED crime levels, it is not unusual to move high risk or dangerous or serial offenders into our community - without any warning being given to anyone, except of course the police - housing - council and other agencies - but not their neighbours or those that could be at risk from them ! You appear to have a good understanding of the true picture - but risk assessments are sometimes missed altogether - staff simply cannot be bothered to do them, and in other cases they are ignored or not passed on to other agencies such as housing ! Be sure though - the police always know who the most dangerous individuals are and where they live - but hide behind the data protection act or similar and do not warn those who are at risk - that my EXPERIENCE anyhow ! I know of a case where the police would not enter a block of flats because ONE resident was too dangerous, under MAPPP at the time. Rather a shame a single parent with a child also lived in the same block, and a widowed elderly lady in a wheelchair !!

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Adam Hall says...
5:05am Wed 5 Sep 12

Yes, risk assessment is all very well, but the only risk management policy for "care in the community" seems to be increased levels of medication. So as well as having potentially dangerous psychotics living next to us, we now have them all wandering around, drugged up on who knows what.

How was this ever going to end well? Who's idea was it? We used to have a perfectly good psychiatric asylum in Devizes. I know they used to have secure wards there, precisely so incidents like this didn't happen.

What did they do? Just turf all the psycho ward residents out on the street with a pocketful of valium, and a phone number for their "support worker"? Because that's just what it looks like.

And despite being prescribed mountains of drugs, apparently many "outpatients" decide not to take them, and they are even worse once the drugs wear off. If the tablets stop you hearing the voices, then you TAKE the damned tablets! How hard can it be?

We need either our Health Authority to adopt a more transparent and accountable placement policy, (some hope) or the old style Hospitals back.

I don't mean Victorian treadmills and basket weaving, just somewhere they can be as mad as they like in, without any risk to the public from knife wielding drug (or not) crazed lunatics!

And I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg.

"And what rough beast, it's hour come at last, slouches towards Devizes to be born"?

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