michael ryan hungerfordnorth walsham police station telephone number
That was possibly even worse than hearing it the first time.". Fifteen other people were also shot but survived. Shortly after midday, Michael Ryan had approached Susan Godfrey, who was picnicking in nearby Savernake Forest. It's not known whether Ryan spent a long time watching Sue Godfrey, a 35-year-old nurse who had stopped with her two young children for a picnic lunch. The Hungerford Family Help Unit was hastily established in makeshift offices, co-ordinated by John Smith, to help a community suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. "He used to say he could follow anyone and they wouldnt notice," said the friend. As he drove the three-and-a-half miles a news report came on the radio about a suspected armed robbery at a petrol station in Froxfield. Two days later, Mr Playle died from his injuries. It was during this time that he lost his caretaker job. The investigation into Mrs Godfrey's death found she had not been raped. The couple and their two grown-up sons now live in a two-bedroom council house a few streets away. He carried on, shooting Mrs Godfrey 13 times until he ran out of ammunition. "As soon as there's been a shooting, some journalist will call. It's difficult. 9 - Marcus Barnard The Jacksons had loved their home on South View, with its large garden, and were in the process of buying it. He then shot her in the back with a Beretta pistol. In addition to this, the local telephone exchange could not handle the amount of 999 calls that were being made, as Ryan wreaked havoc across the suburbs and people desperately tried phoning for help. She shouted at him, saying, Is that you making that noise? Over the moon at the news of his father's survival, PC Wainwright telephoned his brothers and sister. Ryan stormed into the shop and again aimed his rifle at Dean. "They couldnt cope. The speed with which he carried out his agenda indicates an element of forethought. 11 - Eric Vardy Their pictures were a grim account of the trail of destruction and death that Ryan had left in his wake. "[Mr Ryan] was quite the bully. Ambulances lined the main street. They usually hang up if a journalist approaches them and refuse to have their photograph taken in connection with the shooting. An only child, Michael Robert Ryan was born on 18 May 1960 in the Savernake hospital, Hungerford. It was the same school he had attended more than a decade before. Read more: Amazing archive photos show the changing face of Reading in the 1960s, Read more: Caversham Park Village from the air 50 years ago. When that didn't bring him the respect he was looking for, he grabbed his guns and set out to kill as many people as he could. He explained who he was and his experience, and offered sympathy. All I could think of was the dogs. Ryan looked at her with extremely vacant eyes and a strange grin, before moving off eastwards along a footpath leading to Hungerford Common. The damage to Michael Ryan's house after he set fire to it. Their inability to defend themselves against their bullies means that shame, guilt, anger, hate and the need for revenge builds inside them. He was John Storms, 49, a washing machine engineer who had been called out to Hungerford Park Farm on business. Gunshots were often heard from Hungerford Common, at one end of South View. In less than an hour, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had killed 12 of their classmates and 1 teacher, injuring 24. But she wasn't. Betty Tolladay, 71, had heard loud bangs, and thinking it was children playing with firecrackers, had come out into her back garden to shout at them to keep the noise down. ", Trevor Wainwright still lives in Hungerford. 20th August 1987. Ryan used a semi-automatic rifle, an M1 Carbine and a Beretta pistol to carry out a string of attacks in the village. The Hungerford Report confirmed that Ryans weapons had been legally licenced. While the physical injuries from that fateful day have long since healed, the emotional scars in Hungerford still run deep. Ryan was holding one of his most prized possessions - a Chinese copy of a Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifle. Later, police told her they believed her life had been saved by the fact she'd kept her curtains drawn as she pottered about, doing her housework in her nightgown. If there is a shooting elsewhere in the world, he braces himself for his phone to ring. "I thought: 'How the hell can I go and see her if they're all blaming me? Lepetit had heard about shooting in his neighbourhood and was hurrying home to check on his family. Ambulance driver Hazel Haslett arrived minutes later. Her children, who were 85 yards away from where her body was found, were later reunited with their father. Whilst chatting to a work colleague, the subject of Michael Ryan and the 1987 Hungerford massacre came up. Driver, Linda Bright, immediately put the ambulance into reverse and retreated. Hazel Haslett escaped with minor injuries. "If he had the choice - to die from a horrible disease like that, or be shot, I know he'd choose the bullet. He returned to South View to find bodies on the ground and was asked by police to identify them. The Hungerford police were already undertaking a manhunt for the killer and a police helicopter spotted Ryan. It was his gun cupboard. They warned ground units to set up a roadblock around South View, to stop any drivers entering the area, although they had no idea what Ryan would do next. Dr Gregory Moffat, a childhood aggression specialist, claimed that victims of bullying are generally small, weak, lack confidence and are loners. By the time Dean looked back at him, he had assumed a shooting position, with the rifle aimed directly at her. Many were attended by people who had never known the deceased in life, but wished to show support for their families and the bereaved Hungerford community in general. However, they stipulated that Ryan install a suitable Chubb steel cabinet in which to safely lock his weapons. Linda Chapman and her teenage daughter Alison - Mr Whiting's sister and niece - were hit. When PC Wainwright heard it was Michael Ryan from South View, he couldn't put a face to the name. His father, Alfred Henry Ryan, a government building inspector, was known for being a perfectionist and was 55 when Ryan was born.His mother, Dorothy Ryan, was over 20 years younger than her husband and was 34 when she had her only son. Now, he added a new dimension. Prof Jackson also considers Ryan was heavily influenced by a mass shooting occurring 10 days earlier in Melbourne, Australia, that was reported on television in the UK. Large crowds attended the funerals of Ryan's victims, Trevor Jackson had first heard of the shootings when a colleague asked: "What's happened to your parents?". As smoke filled the air from Ryans burning house, more people were hiding inside their homes. But Ryan had moved. "I went to help and she said Michael Ryan had shot her. 5 - Abdul Khan Inside, PC Roger Brereton, a traffic officer who had volunteered to investigate, was slumped against the steering wheel, clearly dead. Ryan, an unemployed laborer and an antique dealer, was walking in Hungerford, Berkshire, on a summer afternoon when he targeted his first victim - a mother of two children in Savernake Forest, Wiltshire, at 12:30 pm. Dorothy Ryan, Michaels mother, was a lunchtime supervisor at the primary school where Mrs Jackson worked. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited the village on Thursday, August 20, 1987, the day after the shooting, to pay her condolences. I still get dreadful pain in my back. The Housing Department of Newbury District Council made accommodation available for those residents of South View who found themselves homeless after the fires Ryan had started. Bernard was the tenth fatality on that bloody Wednesday. They survived, although Alison still has a bullet inside her. There was no way he would miss. He liked to think of himself as a soldier, skilled at surveillance without being seen himself. Mayor Tarry claimed it to be the day on which life in the town could begin once more. It was calculated that during the most intense period of Ryans rampage, he had killed an average of one person per minute. Jackson played dead and survived the shooting.He heard what happened next, as Dorothy Ryan, returning home from some shopping, arrived at the scene in her car. He saw Mr White and Mr Jackson in the car and Mr Clements - who had been walking his dog with his family - lying dead on the footpath. Meanwhile, police were busy getting some people to safety and preventing others from going where they thought Ryan might move to next. It's testament to her own strength of mind that she did. Everyone remembers the silence. If only my car had started. It was being chased up the road by Michael Ryan. Both recreational and agricultural shooting were normal occurrences in the area. He was shooting at me. But, although the house was cleaned and modernised and made available for them, they could not bear to return. Popular cab driver, Marcus Bernard, 30, was en route to visit his wife and newborn son in the local hospital. "Then he shot her again, twice, in the back, from about four inches away.". He was shot three times in the groin and the leg with the AK-47 rifle and died where he fell. He survived the attack. We were good friends," he says. 3 - Kenneth Clements Mrs Gibbs died several days later, in hospital. Instead she found Ryan, who shot her once. The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was on holiday in Cornwall at the time, was notified of the events and kept informed via a special phone line from Downing Street. Ambulance-woman Hazel Haslett was injured in the arm and the leg by broken glass. It was Jane, PC Wainwright's then-wife. When Ryan was old enough, he purchased a shotgun and began to collect other weapons, which he proudly displayed in a glass cabinet in his bedroom. From the eerie quiet of Hungerford High Street after the murder of 16 people to the trail of blood leading up to the bedroom of an anonymous terraced house, Shepherd conjures up the uncanny. He headed straight there and was greeted by a nurse who said Kathleen was fine and Douglas was in the operating theatre. Later that day, his parents were driving up from their home in Kent to visit him. "When you work for the ambulance service, you do your best to help people," Mr Whiting says. Mrs Jackson can remember Mrs Ryan telling her about a mysterious "friend" Michael had made. He took aim and killed her with a single bullet to the chest. The report also said the operation was hampered by press helicopters making so much noise it was difficult for police on the ground to hear or relay instructions. South View became a popular haunt for tourists. Then Ryan had shot and killed Abdul Khan, a hard-of-hearing 84-year-old who was gardening. With blood running down his face, he could only watch through half-closed eyes as Dorothy Ryan, Michaels mother, arrived home from the Wednesday market. A few moths before the massacre, Ryan joined the Tunnel Rifle and Pistol Club, in Wiltshire. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of Terms and Conditions. In a small village 60 miles west of London, at 12:30 in the afternoon, 27-year-old Michael Ryan shoots a mother dead. Were just waiting until life gets back to normal. His face, she says, was expressionless. He legally owned several semi-automatic weapons and told people he had been in the SAS - just one strand of a fantasy life woven by him and apparently perpetuated by his mother. Francis Butler was shot while walking his dog in the Memorial Gardens; Marcus Barney Barnard, was shot while driving to his home; Douglas Wainwright, died as he drove with his wife to visit their son; Erie Vardy, was shot while driving his van. "It was just routine. His wife and children were unhurt. Armed with three guns, he had already murdered six people and seriously injured seven more. What she found was houses on fire, people lying dead in their gardens and smashed cars lining the street. "I just broke down in tears," Mr Wainwright says. As he went along Priory Road, Ryan stopped at the home of Myrtle and Victor Gibbs, whose door was, as usual, locked. Its inhabitants refer to the shooting as "The Tragedy", almost as if it were a natural disaster. Following the massacre, the British press was inundated with stories about Michael Ryan and speculation as to why he had committed so many acts of unprovoked violence. Sharp, acrid and smoky.". It was confirmed that Michael Robert Ryan had fatally shot himself at 6.52 pm on Wednesday, 19 August 1987, with a single gunshot to the head. His victims included his own mother and police officer Roger Brereton - who was later posthumously awarded the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct. Trevor can't move out to his own place. "My brother and sister-in-law were on the list.". Dr Yardley believes Ryan was attempting to wrest some sort of control from society. He had what appeared to be a normal upbringing, although he was perhaps overindulged by his mother. The Round Table helped by providing funds for taxis, rents, television rentals and other services. His wife, who had a bullet in her spine, was not expected to walk again. As they drove up Tarrants Hill, their windscreen was shattered by a spray of bullets and Vardy was hit twice, under the chin and in the torso. He would also brag to people about things he had not done, in a string of lies that made him seem far more capable and experienced than he actually was. 19th August 1987. "I just thought: 'They dont want outsiders. It banned the ownership of semi-automatic firearms and pump-action weapons and made registration mandatory for shotgun owners. Her Majesty the Queens private secretary sent a letter of condolence from Buckingham Palace to Mayor Tarry and enclosed a personal contribution from the Queen. These include Lonewolf: True Stories of Spree Killers (May 2002) by Pan Pantziarka and The Encyclopedia of Mass Murder by Brian Lane and Wilfred Gregg (1993). The Hoddle Street massacre was committed by a former soldier who wore combat fatigues. This documentary examines Ryan's childhood, his acquisition of guns, and the killings. [CDATA[// >