Police used untested stun gun on Moat

TWO policemen fired powerful new electric stun guns that have yet to be officially approved at fugitive gunman Raoul Moat at around the time he killed himself after a six-hour standoff, investigators said yesterday.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, investigating the 37-year-old’s death, said it was unclear whether police delivered the shocks before or after Moat shot himself.

Two officers from the West Yorkshire force shot Moat with an XRep Taser, a wireless round fired from a shotgun that delivers a shock designed to incapacitate. “This is understood to have been in an effort to prevent Mr Moat taking his own life,” the IPCC said in a statement. “The precise sequence of events regarding the discharge of the Tasers has not been established.”

The former bodybuilder and nightclub bouncer, who bore a grudge against police, went on the run for six days after shooting his former girlfriend, her boyfriend and a policeman. Armed officers surrounded him in the town of Rothbury in Northumberland where he was living rough.

Opening the inquest into Moat’s death, Newcastle coroner David Mitford said he had died from a gunshot to the head.

The Home Office said it was still testing the XRep Taser and had not yet approved the device for use by police. “However, legally, police forces have discretion to use any equipment they see fit.