Posted on 11/20/2005 6:03:43 AM PST by FerdieMurphy
Police are continuing to question five men and a woman about the murder of rookie woman police officer Sharon Beshenivsky , who was gunned down by armed raiders.
Pc Sharon Beshenivsky: Police said the gunman had not hesitated to open fire on the unarmed officers
Pc Beshenivsky, 38, who had three children and two stepchildren, was killed on her youngest daughter Lydia's fourth birthday as she arrived at the raid in a travel agent's shop in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on Friday.
The former childminder had been a community police officer for two years before joining the full-time West Yorkshire force just nine months ago.
Although she was wearing body armour, she died after being shot in the chest.
Her husband Paul, a landscape gardener, and her family were "completely devastated by the loss", said West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Colin Cramphorn.
Pc Beshenivsky's parents last night told of their grief and anger over the murder of their daughter.
Her father, Billy Jagger, told the News of the World: "She was and always will be a one-in-a-million daddy's girl. And I'm dying inside thinking of life without her.
"She was only trying to do a job and now her life has been taken away. Every time I think of my grandchildren being robbed of their mum it rips my heart in two."
As well as daughter Lydia, Pc Beshenivsky and her husband had a seven-year-old son, also called Paul. She also had a 12-year-old son named Samuel from her previous marriage and was a stepmother to her husband's two children from his previous marriage, Emma, 13, and Joshua, 10.
The arrests came as police made separate swoops in London 200 miles from the scene of the murder following a nationwide appeal for help in tracing the three men armed with guns and a knife who raided the travel agents and stole cash.
Scotland Yard said three men were arrested at 12.15pm yesterday in London. Earlier, police detained a man and a woman in the capital at 7.20am. A sixth person - a man - was arrested in London last night. Five have since been taken to Yorkshire for questioning.
The latest killing of a British police officer led to renewed questions over whether police should be routinely armed.
But this was rejected by Home Office minister Hazel Blears, who said: "It is important that the police have a very close relationship with the public and for them to routinely carry guns might put that relationship at risk."
Pc Beshenivsky had arrived at the scene of the raid with a colleague, Pc Teresa Milburn, who was shot in the shoulder.
Pc Milburn, 37, who joined the force on April 5 last year, remains under armed police guard in hospital.
'Bring back death penalty' (Filed: 20/11/2005)
The former head of the Metropolitan Police has called for the death penalty to be reinstated for police killers following the murder of rookie officer Sharon Beshenivsky.
Lord Stevens: changed mind Lord Stevens says the killer of Pc Beshenivsky should lose his life as a punishment despite having always opposed capital punishment.
Writing in today's News of the World newspaper, the former Scotland Yard commissioner said: "All my life I've been against the death penalty. But after the cold-blooded murder of policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky, I've changed my mind.
"I genuinely never thought I'd say this, but I am now convinced that the monster who executed this young woman in cold blood should, in turn, be killed as punishment for his crime.
He goes on: "For the first time in my life, despite 40 years at the sharp end of policing, I finally see no alternative. Such an extreme act of pure evil can only be met by the most extreme of responses - and that can only be death.
He adds that if the death penalty is not imposed then "wrong really has finally totally triumphed over right, and all civilised society, all we hold dear, is the loser".
Lord Stevens headed the Metropolitan Police from 2000 until January this year. He was credited with turning the force's fortunes around following the Macpherson Report which branded it "institutionally racist".
But he sparked controversy in September by attacking David Blunkett in his memoirs. He claimed the former home secretary knew little about policing when he took up the post and leaked damaging stories about him to the press.
Brits need to keep clamoring for the death penalty for killers while speaking up for laws protecting those who are forced to use measures of self-defense.
Give their guns back to law-abiding British!
Nothing about the killers..curious, eh?
Caught my eye too...and the raid was on a travel agency...can you say terrorist support front/money laundry?
I think I've found the problem.
Here's a description of the perps from a previous story on the shooting:
"Police said that the first robber was Asian, aged 25 to 30, of medium to stocky build with short black hair and a beard, and was 5ft 8in to 5ft 10in tall. The second was black, aged 20 to 30, slim and 6ft tall. He was wearing dark, smart clothing. The third man was black and aged 20 to 30."
Muslims
Today, Dr. Watson would be thrown in the pokey if he even thought about it.
Sherlock was prone to target practive in his apartment with what was apparently BB caps. Oh the horror if someone did that now.
Seems pretty strange I read the story twice and couldnt figure why they placed two female rookies together. Isnt 38 and 37 a little old to be rookies?
Absolutely. This is 1984 journalism. No doubt these people killed her because they don't think females have any authority.
Duh
"Nothing about the killers..curious, eh?"
Travel agency. Sounds like code to me.
This story cannot possibly be true. There are no guns in the UK, everybody knows that.
Why on earth did the police raid a place unarmed? Defies logic. Betcha five pence they don't learn a thing from this tragic incident.
As Gen. Russell Honore says, some people are just stuck on stupid.
Two blacks, one Asian, pistol and baseball bats.
Two rookies answer the call, doesn't seem sensible.
Look at The (leftist) Guardian's editorial:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,6903,1646688,00.html
"We must leave no room for the creeping glorification of gun culture in this country."
So letting cops protect the public and themselves is "glorification" ? I can't fathom such a mindset and I grew up there !
It's too damned bad they weren't armed and trained to blow criminals away.
The government is, of course, to blame.
"For the first time in my life, despite 40 years at the sharp end of policing, I finally see no alternative. Such an extreme act of pure evil can only be met by the most extreme of responses - and that can only be death.
Wow! Maybe someday they'll institute the death penalty for
civilian murders too!
/Sarc
UK MSM complicit in that the names of the muslims wasn't revealed.
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