Reading terrorist attack Police to be honoured for bravery
The four officers who arrested Khairi Saadallah after he murdered three men in Forbury Gardens will receive bravery awards
Four police officers who chased and tackled a knife-wielding terrorist unarmed in Reading are to be recognised for their bravery.
History teacher James Furlong, 36, scientist Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, who worked for a pharmaceutical company, were murdered in Forbury Gardens on June 20 last year.
Pc James Packman, Sergeant Iain Watkinson, Pc Liam Steele and Pc Liam King stepped in unarmed to catch and detain 26-year-old failed Libyan asylum seeker Khairi Saadallah following the attack.
Pc Packman, who had only been an officer for two years, was off duty in Forbury Gardens when the incident occurred and immediately ran after the attacker.
He said: “I was sitting on the grass, facing towards where the victims were and I don’t know what got my attention first, I think it was a scream.
“I looked up and there was the suspect and he was going around the group who were sitting on the floor, stabbing them. I shouted ‘Knife!’.”
As the attacker ran off out of the park, Pc Packman called the police before chasing after him without protective equipment.
Unarmed uniformed response officers Pc Steele, Pc King, and Sgt Watkinson saw Saadallah running towards them, “rugby tackled” him to the floor and restrained him – without knowing if he was armed.
Sgt Iain Watkinson told us:
"I jumped out of my Police car and chased after him and got my baton out because at this stage all I knew was there'd been a stabbing and so I didn't know if he had a knife or what he had and then one of my colleagues who were with me at the time rugby tackled him to the ground and we handcuffed him."
Saadallah was handed a whole-life sentence in January after he pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders.
Craig O’Leary, chairman of Thames Valley Police Federation, said:
“The phrase hero is often bandied about far too easily. But these fabulous four officers are just that. Complete and utter heroes.
“This man was a terrorist. These officers were unarmed and stopped him in his tracks before he could cause anyone else any harm.
“They acted selflessly and with immense bravery in order to protect the public from the possibility of further attacks. We could not be prouder of them.”
Sgt Watkinson says he appreciates being called a hero but:
"Every single person who dealt with the incident that day were heroes there were members of the public, other Police officers, there were paramedics, there were doctors we were just called that but there were so many heroes that day, those people are heroes really"
The bravery of the four officers is to be celebrated alongside 10 other colleagues at Thames Valley Police’s Annual Bravery Awards on September 9.