THIS IS LONGFORD Now in our sixteenth century!  6 June 2003
[ Home ]

This page was last updated on 05 August 2006

On 6th June 2003, a man was shot dead by Police to the north of Longford village.  In the subsequent hours, Longford was closed by Police to all but the press and residents.

Below are the press reports linked to this incident.  Further down the page are photos taken by the webmaster of the approaches to the village sealed off by Police.

Other news from June 2003 can be found here

6 June 2003

A link is provided here to the video from the BBC news report on the incident shown on the Friday night news.

A man has been injured in a shooting incident involving police near Heathrow airport. The incident occurred on the Colnbrook bypass near Bath Road close to the airport.
Source: Middlesborough Evening Gazette

British police on Friday shot and killed a man who fired at them after refusing to stop his car near the edge of London's Heathrow airport, police said.
Source: Reuters

A man has been shot dead during an incident near Heathrow airport. Police officers were called to Saxon Way, a minor road close to the A4 and not far from the airport.
Source: Coventry News

A white man has been killed in a shooting incident involving police near Heathrow airport. The incident occurred in Saxon Way, a minor road close to the A4 near the Colnbrook bypass off Bath Road close to the airport. According to unconfirmed reports, armed police patrolling the airport exchanged gunfire with the occupants of a car after it failed to stop. The incident is not believed to be terrorist-related.
Source: Reading Chronicle

Armed police patrolling near Heathrow Airport came under fire from the occupants of a car and returned fire Friday, a British news agency reported. One man died, police said. Air News, the agency based at Heathrow, said police tried to stop a car that was driving along a road north of the airport when it refused to pull over, and the exchange of fire followed.
Source: Kansas City Star

A motorist was shot dead near Heathrow after refusing to pull over for a routine police check, say Scotland Yard . "Shots were fired," the police spokesman said. "It is not known at this stage whether the suspect fired a shot or shots. He suffered gunshot wounds - (it is) not known how many."
Source: icBirmingham

Man shot dead by Heathrow police. According to unconfirmed reports, armed police patrolling the airport exchanged gunfire with the occupants of a car after it failed to stop. The incident is not believed to be terrorist-related.
Source: Evening Standard

7 June 2003

A man was shot dead by police last night in an apparent shoot-out after he hijacked a patrol car near Heathrow. The white man is believed to have been hit twice in the chest.
Source: The Telegraph

A man allegedly wielding a gun was shot dead yesterday by police near Heathrow airport, Scotland Yard said. The man reportedly refused orders to stop from a police dog handler based at Heathrow airport who was monitoring traffic on a perimeter road in West Drayton. The man allegedly pointed a gun at the officer. Armed officers were then called to the scene.
Source: The Independent

A man was shot dead in an incident near Heathrow airport, London, police confirmed last night. The incident occurred on the Colnbrook bypass near Bath Road close to the airport at 4.35pm.
Source: Irish Examiner

Police near Heathrow Airport shot and killed a man who apparently pointed a gun at the officers, police said Friday. Earlier news reports described the incident as an exchange of gunfire, but Scotland Yard police headquarters later said it was unknown whether the driver fired a shot.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Driver shot, killed near Heathrow Airport. According to one early report, police were fired at when they gave chase to a car which had been involved in a hit and run accident at a pedestrian crossing in Colnbrook. It was suggested that the victim had fled his vehicle and was shot as he attempted to escape.
Source: The Guardian

An armed man was shot and killed by police after he pulled a gun on them and refused to stop his car near the Heathrow airport, police sources said.
Source: Mid-Day Mumbai

A gunman was shot dead by cops yesterday after trying to hijack a police van near Heathrow airport. Marksmen on terrorist security alert blasted him twice in the chest after he pulled a gun on them. The white suspect had climbed into a police dog-handler’s vehicle after being stopped in a car at West Drayton, half a mile from the airport.
Source: The Sun

A man was shot dead yesterday in a gun battle with anti-terrorist police at Heathrow Airport. He opened fire after refusing to stop his car for a routine security search. Officers returned fire and the man was shot in the chest.
Source: The Mirror

Questions are being asked about a reported gunfight near Heathrow which led to a motorist being shot dead by police. The man was killed when he refused to stop for a routine police patrol near the airport.
Source: Sky News

A Police Complaints Authority investigation was under way today after armed officers shot dead a man who refused to pull over. The man was driving alone in West Drayton, at 4.30pm yesterday, half a mile from the perimeter of Heathrow Airport, when a dog handler from Heathrow Police "routinely observing passing vehicles" signalled for him to stop.
Source: Edinburgh News

The man who died after a shoot-out with police near Heathrow airport on Friday was armed with a replica handgun. Keith Larkins, 33, pointed the gun at police and shot at them first on the A4 near the British Airways headquarters at West Drayton in west London.
Source: BBC

8 June 2003

Man shot dead by police had fake gun. He stopped a little way down the road and pointed his gun at the officers. When he refused to put it down several shots were fired by the police, hitting him in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Source: The Observer

9 June 2003

A man killed by police near Heathrow Airport was shot in the chest and stomach. A post mortem examination on 33-year-old Keith Larkins gave cause of death as shock and haemorrhage from gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, confirm the Police Complaints Authority.
Source: Ananova

The man shot dead by police at Heathrow was mentally ill, his mother disclosed today. Keith Larkins and his increasingly desperate mother, Maureen, begged for help from Hillingdon Council's social services in the weeks before his death. But staff told them he was "not ill enough" to need help, Mrs Larkins claimed.
Source: Evening Standard

10 June 2003

Keith Larkins had failed to keep an appointment with the West London Mental Health Trust the day before he was pulled over by police near the airport. Trust workers were then due to visit him.
Source: The Telegraph

12 June 2003

A mentally ill man was crying at the wheel of his car just minutes before being shot dead by police, a coroner's court has heard.
Source: Ananova

A mentally ill man who was shot dead in West Drayton by police was due to see mental health services on the day he died.
Source: Hillingdon Times

 

 

The following photos are of the Police operation closing roads in the area of Longford in the aftermath of the incident.

Click on each photo for a large image.

	Looking from Spelthorne Farm towards the Longford roundabout.  Police are stopping all traffic attempting to enter Longford.
The same location but this time looking from Stanwell Moor Road towards Longford.
	Chaos reins!  The cranes on the T5 construction site can be seen in the background.
Traffic was also blocked from driving north from the Longford roundabout on Stanwell Moor Road.  The only option open to vehicles was to turn back south or to head through Colnbrook.
	A most unusual site.  Stanwell Moor Road looking north from Longford roundabout with no traffic on a Friday rush hour.
More vehicles being turned away by Police Officers.