Subscribe: RSS Podcast iTunes
wikiofthedaymasto.ai
  Buy WotD Stuff!!
Episode 2104             Episode 2106
Episode 2105

Northolt siege
Wed, 2023-Feb-08 01:02 UTC
Length - 2:31

Direct Link

Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.

The featured article for Wednesday, 8 February 2023 is Northolt siege.

The Northolt siege was a hostage situation which developed in Northolt, West London, England, on 25 December 1985 and resulted in the shooting of Errol Walker. It was the first shooting by an officer from the Metropolitan Police's specialist Firearms Wing. After a domestic dispute, Walker forced entry into his sister-in-law's flat. He took the woman, her daughter, and his own daughter hostage and shortly afterwards fatally stabbed the woman. Negotiations eventually secured the release of Walker's daughter, but he still held the other child hostage with a large kitchen knife.

Senior police officers were keen to resolve the situation without use of force and adopted a policy of appeasing Walker, which included withdrawing armed officers from Walker's vision. Almost 30 hours into the siege, Walker ventured onto the communal balcony to pick up an abandoned riot shield. Armed police officers attempted to intercept him but he made it back to the flat before they reached him. The officers threw stun grenades through the windows and climbed through the kitchen window. One officer found Walker lying on a sofa, holding the knife to the child, and fired three shots, hitting Walker twice.

Walker was knocked unconscious but both he and the girl survived. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, attempted murder, and other offences. Although the Firearms Wing had existed for almost 20 years, Northolt marked the first time one of its officers had opened fire, and the first use of stun grenades by British police. The incident demonstrated the unit's capabilities, which it had been developing for several years. One historian of the unit felt that the incident showed that the police had an alternative for crises that could not be resolved peacefully.

This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:02 UTC on Wednesday, 8 February 2023.

For the full current version of the article, see Northolt siege on Wikipedia.

This podcast is produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

Visit wikioftheday.com for our archives. Please subscribe to never miss an episode. On Mastodon follow us at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.

Abulsme Productions produces the current events podcast Curmudgeon's Corner as well. Check it out in your podcast player of choice.

This has been Justin Standard. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.

Archive
2017:MayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2018:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2019:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2021:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2022:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2023:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2024:JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Most Recent Episodes


Feedback welcome at feedback@wikioftheday.com.

These podcasts are produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content.

They are released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Creative Commons License

Abulsme Productions also produces Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.

If you like that sort of thing, check it out too!


Page cached at 2024-12-10 06:53:20 UTC
Original calculation time was 0.1377 seconds

Page displayed at 2024-12-10 17:09:46 UTC
Page generated in 0.0014 seconds