Man pulled out gun in Leeds post office and threatened to shoot police officers in head

A court heard a mum with a toddler was terrified when Andrew Ogden produced the weapon at the premises in Leeds.

Leeds Crown Court heard the officers believed Ogden was in possession of a loaded, fully operational pistol.

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Ogden, 27, left Premier Post Office on Halton Moor Avenue and went into the garden of a family home still holding the weapon.

Mehran Nassiri, prosecuting, said the dad who lived at the house feared for his children’s safety after seeing Ogden wielding the gun.

The dad had to be restrained by officers from tackling Ogden for his own safety.

The court heard a member of the public bravely intervened to “diffuse” the situation and Ogden left the garden.

Armed police then arrived and used a taser on Ogden as he became violent during his arrest. Mr Nassiri said the owner of the shop called police around 9am on August 2 this year after Ogden turned up at the shop and pestered a member of staff for a cigarette.

The court heard Ogden had previously caused a nuisance at the store.

Ogden produced the gun when two police constables arrived. Mr Nassiri said: “The defendant took one step back and took a black metal pistol from his shorts pocket and pointed it at the officers’ faces at a distance of one metre.

“Officers believed the gun was a fully operational firearm.”

Ogden told the officers the weapon was loaded.

He said: “Move away from me or you are gonna get it in the back of the head.”

Ogden threw the weapon away before he was arrested and it has not been recovered.

During interview he claimed it had been a ball bearing gun he had got from a friend’s house and not a genuine weapon.

In a separate incident, Ogden attacked his friend with a hammer and punched him in the face during a drunken row at a house in Huddersfield.

Ogden pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Nigel Jamison, mitigating, said: “He is appalled at what he has done.”

The barrister said the offences were linked to his addiction to alcohol.

Ogden was jailed for three years, three months.

Recorder Paul Greaney, QC, said he had to sentence Ogden on the basis that it was an imitation firearm as the weapon had not been recovered.

He said: “For all the officers knew it was real and they believed it was real.

“This was a quite dreadful and frightening incident that you created entirely.”