Police 'painstakingly' searching four crime scenes in probe of Met officer Matiu Ratana
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia
Police are "painstakingly" searching four crime scenes in connection with the fatal shooting of an officer in a custody centre in London.
Metropolitan Sergeant Matiu Ratana died after a 23-year-old gunman opened fire at Croydon Custody Centre in south London in the early hours of Friday.
New Zealand-born Sgt Ratana, 54, was known as Matt to friends and family and joined the force in 1991.
Tributes paid to ‘much-loved’ Met Police officer Matiu Ratana
Croydon Custody Centre shooting: Police deaths in the UK over the past decade
Giving an update on Saturday evening, deputy assistant commissioner Stuart Cundy said investigators have CCTV from the custody suite and bodyworn video from the officers.
The suspect has not been spoken to yet due to his condition, he added.
The suspect, who had been arrested for possession of Class B drugs with intent to supply and possession of ammunition, also shot himself during the incident at about 2.15am and is in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
Speaking outside New Scotland Yard, he said there were four crime scenes which were being "painstakingly" searched.
He added: "We have recovered the gun from the custody suite where Matt was shot and that gun is being forensically examined."
"We also have CCTV from that custody suite which shows the events, and we have body-worn video of our police officers who were involved in the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the suspect."
Searches are taking place at an address on Southbrook Road and an area of nearby London Road, both in Norbury, south-west London, an address on Park Road in Banstead, Surrey as well as the custody suite where the shooting happened.
Police said forensic searches at all four locations will be “rigorous” and are expected to take days to be completed.
Met Police chief Cressida Dick pays tribute to Sergeant Matiu Ratana
The IOPC said he was taken into the building and sat in a holding area in the custody suite, then opened fire while still in handcuffs as officers prepared to search him with a metal detector.
IOPC regional director Sal Naseem said: “It is at that point that shots were fired resulting in the fatal injuries to the officer and critical injuries to the man.
“A non-police issue firearm, which appears to be a revolver, has been recovered from the scene. Further ballistic work will be required.”
Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, who with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, led police officers across the capital in a minute’s silence on Friday, described Sgt Ratana as a “talented police officer”.
He was “big in stature, big in heart, friendly, capable, a lovely man and highly respected by his colleagues”, and leaves behind a partner and adult son, Dame Cressida said.
Forensic officers in white suits were seen entering the police station on Friday morning, while floral tributes were left throughout the day.
Forces across the country flew flags at half-mast as a mark of respect and tributes poured in for Sgt Ratana, who Dame Cressida Dick described as a “lovely, lovely, much-respected police officer”.
Leroy Logan, a former Met superintendent, said there were questions to be answered around the circumstances which led to the shooting.
“How did that person come to be in the station, whether it’s in the yard or the building itself, and be able to produce a weapon, whether it’s on them at the time?” he told BBC News.
Sgt Ratana is the eighth police officer in the UK to be shot dead in the last 20 years and the first to be murdered by a firearm in the line of duty since Pcs Fiona Bone, 32, and Nicola Hughes, 23, in September 2012.
They were murdered by Dale Cregan in a gun and grenade attack while responding to a report of a burglary in Greater Manchester.
The Met sergeant is the 17th from the force to be killed by a firearm since the end of the Second World War, according to the National Police Memorial roll of honour.
Unarmed Pc Keith Palmer, who was stabbed in March 2017 by terrorist Khalid Masood during the Westminster Bridge attack, was the last Met officer to be killed in the line of duty.
The roll of honour includes Pc Andrew Harper, who died when he was caught in a tow rope and dragged along country lanes after trying to stop quad bike thieves in Berkshire in August 2019.