Metropolitan Police swoop on boys playing with air rifles in Fairmead Road

Published: 1st April, 2011
by PAVAN AMARA

A MOTHER has accused the police of over-reaction after armed officers swooped on her Holloway home and pointed guns at the head of one of her teenage sons, who had been playing with air rifles.

The raid happened in Fairmead Road on Sunday afternoon when a family day was interrupted by “dozens” of armed officers clambering over the garden fence.

The mother-of-four – who asked not to be named – said: “My sons, who are aged 16 and 17, were playing with a friend of theirs with air rifles. My other two children, who are 14 and 12, were sitting in the sunshine eating fruit or reading magazines when suddenly police officers came from all directions and one held a gun against the head of one of my sons.

“Once they saw they were playing with a couple of air rifles they realised they had been totally wrong. I couldn’t believe it – a whole police ­mission over a couple of kids playing in their back garden? You couldn’t make it up.”

But the swift action by officers was defended by Labour councillor Claudia Webbe, chairwoman of the Met Police’s Operation Trident, which deals with gun crime in the capital.

Cllr Webbe argued that police would have been acting on information from the public.

She said: “What would have happened if it had been a real gun incident? How would people feel if just a couple of constables turned up and a tragedy ensued? The police have to take seriously any incident involving guns.”

Armed response officers cordoned off the road before approaching the house from all directions, including climbing through neighbours’ back gardens.

One neighbour said he “saw an officer in a flak jacket tiptoeing down Fairmead Road with a long gun”. He added: “At this stage I was told to move on by what I assume were plain-clothes officers in an unmarked car.”

This is the second time the home has been raided by armed police. Last year, they swooped after children were spotted playing with neon-coloured water pistols in the street.

The mother said: “I don’t know who on earth would call the police over kids playing with bright orange and green water guns on a summer’s day.

“Whoever it was needs to be hauled up for wasting police time or given a court order to go to the local optician.

“But instead they told us off for letting our children play with fluorescent-coloured kids’ water guns.

“What do they want me to do? Tell my sons to start making daisy chains and playing with dolls? Boys naturally like playing with fake swords, guns, soldiers, but now the police are stopping them.

“I would rather my sons play with fake swords and guns and get it out of their system in the back garden than get frustrated enough to start being genuinely violent.”

But police point out that air rifles can injure or kill. Under the Firearms (Dangerous Air Weapons) Rules 1969 airguns are treated like any other firearm. A firearms certificate is needed for a gun firing with energy of 12 feet/pounds or greater. It is an offence to have a loaded airgun in a public place without a good reason.

A police spokeswoman said: “Police, including armed response officers, spoke to two young people in possession of air rifles. An appropriate adult was present and they were on private premises so no offences were committed. Advice was given to all parties.”