A jury has been shown CCTV footage of a Met Police sergeant being fatally shot in a custody suite in Croydon, south London.
Prosecutors say Louis de Zoysa, 25, who is on trial for the murder of Sergeant Matt Ratana, “deliberately shot Sergeant Ratana once to the chest, at very close range” using a gun that was “probably concealed under one of his armpits”.
In the footage de Zoysa can be seen sitting in a room in the custody suite with the two officers who had arrested him a short time earlier.
Mr Ratana enters the room, tells de Zoysa he is in charge and what he has been arrested for and asks him to stand up to be searched.
At that moment, de Zoysa stands, still handcuffed, fires the weapon and Mr Ratana can be seen falling to the ground.
The two other officers immediately attempt to restrain de Zoysa, but three further shots are fired over the next 19 seconds.
Officers from outside the room run to try to help Mr Ratana, dragging him from the room.
Defendant hit by bullet
The jury at Northampton Crown Court was told the first shot caused a fatal injury to Mr Ratana’s left lung and heart.
The second shot hit him in the leg.
The third shot hit a wall and the fourth shot hit de Zoysa himself.
That shot, the court was told, caused the defendant to suffer brain damage and it has been explained to the jury that is why he uses a wheelchair and has “real problems with his communication”, meaning he will communicate with the court by writing on a whiteboard and require an intermediary in the dock to help him follow the trial.
Earlier, the jury saw police bodyworn footage of de Zoysa being stopped and searched in south London in the early hours of 25 September 2020.
He was arrested for possession of drugs and ammunition after officers found that he was carrying cannabis and seven rounds of ammunition.
However, officers failed to find the loaded revolver which was in a holster.
The footage showed de Zoysa being put in handcuffs and taken to the police station.
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The prosecution have said that in order to use his weapon “Louis de Zoysa stood up… twisted his body round to the right… brought his hands from behind his back to the right side of his body” and “was holding the gun in his right hand”.
They allege “he fired the gun directly at the chest of Sergeant Ratana” and that “this was a deliberate shot”.
Jurors were told de Zoysa had bought the gun, an antique revolver, legally on the internet and made the ammunition at the farm where he lived in Surrey.
De Zoysa denies murder.
His barrister told the jury that de Zoysa was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder when he was 13, adding “you saw that Louis de Zoysa fired a gun. Louis de Zoysa accepts he fired a gun. Louis de Zoysa accepts that two of the bullets hit Sergeant Ratana”.
But, the lawyer added, “Louis de Zoysa says he did not mean to or want to kill Sergeant Ratana or to cause him really serious harm.
“The reason Louis de Zoysa says he is not guilty is because at the time he was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning. The abnormality of mental functioning that Louis De Zoysa was suffering from is an autistic meltdown.
“Louis de Zoysa says it is this that led him to fire the gun that led to Sergeant Ratana’s death.”
The trial continues.
