Police twice fired tasers at Glasgow hotel attacker, inquiry told

An inquiry has heard that police twice fired tasers at an asylum seeker who was attacking people, before he was shot dead by firearms officers.

Badreddin Abdullah Adam Bosh, 28, stabbed five people, including a police constable, during the incident at the Park Inn hotel in Glasgow in June 2020.

A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) heard from a firearms commander who said the shooting was appropriate and necessary to protect the public and police from further harm.

The hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court will determine whether lessons could be learned.

The inquiry was told the first officers to arrive found an injured man at the hotel entrance and heard someone else screaming in the street.

PC Cameron Wandrum said he and a colleague, PC David Whyte, decided to go in, to ensure the safety of the people inside and find the attacker.

Asked if they had concerns about their own safety, Wandrum said: "To be honest, it's not something we thought about at the time. It was a quick decision."

Once inside, the officers saw a lot of blood and found another man who had been stabbed, but were unable to trace the suspect.

Wandrum said firearms officers arrived and he started to leave the building but became separated from his colleague.

He heard a radio message calling for urgent assistance and then someone saying: "Davy's been stabbed."

The inquiry heard that Whyte had fired his taser at Bosh but was unsure whether he had hit him.

The officer suffered four stab wounds, underwent emergency surgery and survived, as did the four other people who were stabbed during the incident.

The court also heard from "Officer 21," a tactical firearms commander who was in charge of the initial response.

He said: "We appeared to have a person who was unhinged and was continuing to perpetrate attacks on members of the public and as we found out, a police officer, which is a really high escalation."

The commander considered deploying Operation Plato, the UK-wide policing response to a terror attack but instead decided individuals within the hotel were being targeted.

He said: "It looked to me that it was some kind of dispute or altercation at that point, in that hotel, as opposed to someone who is adamant on wreaking havoc for religious or other causes."

Firearms officers used a battering ram to force entry to Bosh's room, and by mistake an officer threw in a smoke grenade instead of a stun grenade, setting off the hotel's fire alarm.

The intended device would have had the same result.

The room was empty. They were ordered to search the hotel, locate, contain and "neutralise" the suspect by the safest means possible.

Another firearms commander at the scene said there was chaos, confusion and a lack of information about where the suspect was.

The inquiry heard that firearms officers found Bosh, discharged a taser at him but missed, then lost him.

An hour after the incident began, two other officers shot him dead on a first floor landing. They attempted first aid but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officer 21 said the speed and gravity of the incident made it the most challenging of his career.

He said lives were at risk, people who had been stabbed were "bleeding out", and there was panic among residents in the hotel.

"I will happily justify any decisions that I took during that incident," said Officer 21.

"If I was still in that role and the same set of circumstances happened tonight, there's nothing I would change.

"It's tragic the outcome, it's a terrible scenario to unfold, but we had to make decisions and we had to make them quickly."

The inquiry before Sheriff Stuart Reid continues.