UK fugitive ends life after armed fight

Jul 11, 2010 |

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London, July 10: One of Britain’s longest-ever manhunts ended dramatically on Saturday with the fugitive gunman, Raoul Moat, shooting himself dead to end a tense armed stand-off with police.

After gradually closing the net on Moat, who had been on the run for a week after a deadly shooting rampage, armed police surrounded him in the country village at the very epicentre of the massive manhunt.

They cornered the 37-year-old bouncer by a riverbank late on Friday and had been negotiating for six hours into the rainy night when the wanted man shot himself.

Police confirmed that Moat “died in hospital” after being rushed from the scene in an ambulance.

In a search that brought in police officers from across the kingdom, Moat was finally captured in Rothbury, north of Newcastle in northeast England.

He was wanted for shooting dead his ex-girlfriend’s new partner, and seriously injuring her along with a policeman in the Newcastle area shortly after being released from prison.

In letters left for detectives he claimed to be a “killer and a maniac”, declared “war” on the police and said in a letter to them he would not stop killing “till I’m dead”.

Police said they found the father-of-three in Rothbury at around 1800 GMT on Friday. “Raoul Thomas Moat was found by police in the vicinity of the riverbank and he was armed,” Northumbria Police said in a statement. Expert negotiators were brought in to speak to him. But Moat shot himself. He was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead, it said.

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