'I'm sorry for trouble I caused' says man who held gun to head outside Royal Liverpool Hospital
06.04.2022 - 10:53
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A terminally ill man has apologised after holding a gun to his head outside Royal Liverpool Hospital and causing a 12-hour stand off.
Donald Coleman, 61, called 999 and told operators he wanted to kill himself with a Russian semi-automatic pistol at around 10.30pm on November 3 last year, Liverpool Crown Court heard. During the "severe disruption", armed officers gathered around Prescot Street with the surrounding road shut down and the front entrance of the hospital closed while ambulances were diverted to other hospitals, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Christopher Taylor, prosecuting, said the 61-year-old told police he "didn't want to hurt anybody" and that someone had asked him to "mind" a gun for them. Mr Taylor said: "He told the call handler he didn't want the gun to go back on the streets. He described it as a black Russian World War 2 handgun... He said he was thinking of ways to kill himself and he wanted to kill himself with the gun."
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While parked on Prescot Street, Coleman was seen "pointing that firearm at his own head". Attending the scene was 18 armed officers accompanied by 58 other officers as well as Coleman's family and friends who tried to talk him out of killing himself.
Eventually, a police negotiator was able to convince Coleman to surrender at around 10.15am on November 4 - he was then arrested and sectioned and was not interviewed until January 4. Coleman apologised for the disruption he caused and said he didn't want anyone to get hurt.
He informed officers that he had been approached three days before the incident by a man he knew - who he wouldn't name - who asked for a "favour". He was then given a small shoebox to hold
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