EXCLUSIVE
BY DAVID BRUCE AND GEOFF FOX
TWO police officers were hailed heroes for catching a convicted robber who threatened them with a sawn-off shotgun.
Desperate London-based criminal Michael Coe was out on licence from prison when he turned a sawn-off shotgun on Leeds PCs Gary Panther and Richard Coulton.
But the two courageous officers continued to chase powerfully-built six-footer Coe and eventually arrested him after a violent struggle in Burley, Leeds.
At Leeds Crown Court yesterday, 24-year-old Coe, from Hackney, in east London, who was recalled to jail after the shotgun incident, was ordered to serve a further eight years behind bars.
He had pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm with intent to resist arrest, possessing a sawn-off shotgun and possessing a loaded shotgun in a public place.
Judge Dobkin commended the two officers for their bravery. Today the officer leading the investigation, Det Supt Bill Shackleton, added his praise, saying: "They showed exceptional courage."
The drama began when the two officers were on patrol in Leeds city centre and became suspicious of a white Citroen van near Sovereign Street, during the early hours of August 21 last year.
The van had a burst tyre and was being driven on its rim. The officers signalled the driver to stop, but the van was driven off, pursued by the two uniformed officers in a patrol car.
A mile and a half later it stopped in Westfield Road, off Rillbank Lane, in Burley, Leeds. Two men got out and fled on foot, chased by the officers.
Leeds Crown Court heard Coe rested the sawn-off shotgun on his shoulder, aiming at the officers. He then threw the gun at them.
The officers continued to chase him and eventually grabbed him, subdued him after a violent struggle and recovered the shotgun.
Detectives said after the case that they believed Coe might have tried to fire at the officers but one of the shotgun chambers was faulty. When the shotgun was recovered, there was a live cartridge in the other chamber, which was working.
It later emerged that Coe, who had a previous conviction for violence, had been jailed, in London, for a total of five years and nine months, for a knifepoint car-jacking. He had forced the occupants of a car to withdraw cash from a cashpoint. He was out on parole at the time of the Leeds incident.
Det Supt Shackleton said: "The two officers showed remarkable courage in continuing to chase a man who had threatened them with a shotgun. They also believed that his accomplice, who got away, may have been armed.
"They showed outstanding courage and determination by continuing to chase this man and eventually managed to subdue him after a particularly violent struggle."
The second man who was in the van with Coe has never been traced by police.
david.bruce@ypn.co.uk