Lee Rigby police officer: I feared for my life

Warning: this footage contains distressing scenes of the aftermath of Lee Rigby’s death

The officer, identified only as D49, said in a statement that she “instantly” thought she would die when Michael Adebolajo, 28, ran towards the car she had driven to Woolwich in the aftermath of the killing of Lee Rigby.

Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC read her account to jurors at the Old Bailey, in which she said: “I saw a black male running at me waving both his hands in the air in a chopping motion. In his right hand I saw what I call a meat cleaver or a machete.

‘He’s going to kill me’

“I instantly thought, ‘He’s going to kill me’. I went to draw my Glock. Due to my position in the car, the internal door has a panel jutting out, I could not immediately draw my Glock out due to this. It was a split second decision to draw my Taser.

“I could still see the look in the suspect’s eyes. They were so wide and I could see the whites of them. He was shouting something.”

She then saw a second suspect, said to be Michael Adebowale, 22, holding a gun. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s going to shoot me’. I feared for my life.”

The jury saw mobile phone footage of Mr Mr Adebolajo with blood on his hands. He said in the video: “The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. It’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”

A second armed officer, identified as E48, was in court to give evidence in person. He said he and D49 had not had much time to react when Mr Adebolajo ran at them.

‘He was coming at us’

“He started to move towards the vehicle, which started to raise my perception of the threat,” the officer said. “He almost instantly broke into a sprint and I realised we were being attacked. We had very little time to deal with the threat. He was coming at us.”

The officer said that his colleague driving the car, D49, was left “essentially unable to defend herself”. He told the court: “She was defenceless, she had a pane of glass to protect herself, it was not ballistic glass.”

The marksman opened fire on Mr Adebolajo as he ran towards the car, telling the jury he was in “the frame of mind” that the suspect posed a threat.

“The second he started sprinting at us still in possession of that knife, I made the decision to fire, and until he fell away from the vehicle I was still in the frame of mind and I needed to take that decisive action to stop him.”

He then saw Mr Adebowale, who was lying on the ground after being shot, raise his arm in the air, the court heard.

“He raised one of his arms up. I’ve still got a distinct image in my mind of him holding a black revolver in his hand which I clearly saw, which struck me as unusual because he’d just been shot.”

‘Shot his thumb off’

The officer said Mr Adebowale had been shot in the leg and stomach, and raised his arm before he was hit again. “The next two shots shot his thumb off. The hand holding the weapon,” E48 said.

He said that he and other officers try to save the lives of suspects who have been shot. “Once the threat is neutralised we have a duty of care to all persons to save life, no matter who they are.”

Paramedic Nicholas Goh treated Mr Adebolajo at the scene. In a statement read by prosecutor Oliver Glasgow, he said Mr Adebolajo had said: “I don’t want anyone to die, I just want the soldiers out of my country. Your government is all wrong. I did it for my God.”

Another paramedic, William Woolston, said in a statement that Mr Adebolajo told him he believed in Sharia law, and made repeated statements about British soldiers raping and killing women in Afghanistan.

Once Mr Adebolajo was taken to hospital, he remained under police guard. Police Constable Melita Vejnovic told the court he had told her: “My intention was never to harm any civilians.

“There were women and children around, my intention was to hurt military only. He was in his kit, in his uniform, coming in and out of the barracks.”

‘Eye for an eye’

Mr Adebolajo refused to sign a note of the statement he had made, but later dictated her a note that said: “The reason that we are fighting is because we believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

“We hope that one day Great Britain will replace those corrupt politicians with men or women who truly care about the security of their citizens by withdrawing from the affairs of Muslims, including their lands.”

Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, deny murdering Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south-east London, in May.