Stabbed Officer "Did Not Shoot"
A firearms officer sustained four stab wounds in a frenzied attack rather than shoot his assailant on Edinburgh's Princes street, MSPs have heard.
The man ran at two police firearms officers with a knife at the foot of The Mound, Holyrood's Justice Sub-Committee on Police has heard.
They would have been justified in shooting him but they feared a bullet would go through him and hit a member of the public, Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins told the committee.
He said: "Some months ago, two of my officers were attacked on The Mound in Edinburgh by a man with a knife.
"They were firearms officers who were stopped by a member of the public who said there was a gentleman there who appeared to be distressed.
"As they got out the vehicle the man ran at them and started to try and stab them.
"One of my officers was stabbed four times. ''Despite being stabbed four times, despite suffering a frenzied attack, both officers still used their professional assessment and their judgement.
"In my view, they would have been justified in using their conventional weapon against that individual but they didn't.
"They brought him under control and they subdued him by other means.
"When I then spoke to them and asked them why, both of them independently of each other said the reason was: 'It was not so much what was in front of us, we could see what the guy was doing and we wouldn't have missed him because it was too close, but behind him was lots of members of the public and had we shot that individual potentially one of the members of the public would have been struck by the bullet that was going through him.
"So even under the most intense, frenzied attack, the training that these officers received allowed them to make an assessment and they realised that they could not go to their conventional weapon.
"That was a terrible incident, but if nothing else it assured me of first of all the courage of the officers, but actually their utmost professionalism even in the most intensive circumstances.''