Marksman unit | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Marksman unit

Marksman unit

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Domestic disputes can quickly become very dangerous from silly things. In the H block housing schemes at Ngau Tau Kok a call came in and I attended as MU together with Mark Godfrey. A simple domestic had developed into a 1st. floor barred door, seige and multiple hostage situation. The man of the room had a huge row with wife, children , neighbours, police, went crazy, more police (see how it is escalating) then threats to harm and suicide, behind barred door. He then got the gas cookers, turned on all the burners and started cooking the propane gas bottles. The persons inside started going crazy, all the persons outside started going frantic and the man of the room was adding to the frenzy. The fire service were called and tried to knock away the items barring the door so they could get a hose inside to cool things down before the bottles went off and brought the house down. (Actually brought the house down) As the crew were reaching inside the flat the man inside was chopping at their arms, wounding them and getting even more wound up with the shouting and blood flying about. You couldn't shoot anything at him because of the wife, kids, oldies, uncle tom cobbley and all inside running around like wild things and getting hacked at. This had to be brought to an end quickly. Some neighbours were shouting at him from the ground outside his window so Mark and I joined them. Neighbours were also hanging out of windows at the side and above him seeing whats going on. Outside I stood below in front of his window and I started shouting offensives at the man who was leaning further out of the window to throw things at me. Mark was at the base of the wall looking straight up at the underside of his head and shoulders. Using a limited range Fedral Riot Carbine and 1.5" baton round (like a wood truncheon @ 1200' per sec.) shot him from below, instantly stopping the man and leaving him hanging from the window sill. At this the fire service smashed their way in and sprayed the whole inside, cookers, gas bottles, kids everything  and stopped a disaster that almost happened. The local police took over and the man eventually recovered but not in the mind. 10 mins after the incident, things had returned to normal as if nothing happened. Such is the resiliance of the local peoples who were glad to see him go.