Original subtitles

In terms of the general intelligence picture, you'd have a number for him

now dropped, you believe you've now got a new number for him that's live, and

you've obtained some warrants for his current home address.

The threat from firearms has fluctuated over the years in Greater Manchester.

We've had spells where there's been a large amount of firearms discharges.

Just hold fire until you get the nod from Mr. O.

There will always be people out there who will seek to have access to

The biggest priority for me is preventing a firearm

getting into the public arena.

Because if we don't do anything, there is a high chance that someone is going

be killed.

So when we get opportunities to recover firearms, we take it.

When dangerous criminals go on the run, with a couple of steps behind, every

second counts.

I've said I've tried to decapitate them.

Using elite units and specialist tactics.

Surveillance. Communication data.

Cap and mouth.

Greater Manchester Police must hunt down the city's most wanted.

We're onto you. And you have no idea that at some point, your door's coming

crashing in.

No! No!

We've got him.

Yeah, right, cool.

Scrum down. Let you know where we're up to.

Operation Bure is to deal with firearms intelligence.

Greater Manchester Police suspect there is an imminent threat to public safety

in central Manchester.

Tactical firearms commander, Superintendent Paul Walker, has become

information.

I was made aware of intelligence.

that indicates the male by the name of molly shoreline watson who lives in the

moscow area of manchester he's currently got possession of a firearm

the secret intelligence that causes me concern

indicates that that subject will be attending an event at the albert hall in

manchester this evening when he attends that event he'll be in possession of a

firearm

And it's my assumption that he potentially could be featured in a call

titled, Known Persons.

Located in the heart of Manchester's busy nightlife district,

the Albert Hall is one of the city's largest concert venues, with a capacity

nearly 2 ,000.

The event begins in six hours, and the venue will be full.

We've got a credible firearms threat with a lasting time threat and we need

take some form of action to mitigate that threat.

Right. The intention is prior to him getting to the venue, try and get

of him and intercept him before he gets there.

Door's open at seven. We've got to have control of him by that time.

When we have a crime in action, a critical manhunt, kidnapping extortion,

firearms operation,

I will have at my disposal a surveillance unit, firearms

officers, telephone officers.

We have to find them, and we have to find them as quickly as we possibly can.

They thought somebody shot and killed.

I'm trying to get the number, but because it's an urgent verbal, we

the number yet.

Detective Amy Beckett is part of the core team of highly trained specialists

have to locate subject Watson.

We deal with intel that needs to be added on straightaway due to the risk

it. Threat to life, threat to the public, threat to national security, but

anything that is really quite serious and needs to be added on straightaway.

We're trying to get authorities in place, it's just difficult. I don't know

dates from and to, so I'm just trying to find out.

Before they can begin monitoring the subject, Amy must obtain what's known as

Direct Surveillance Authority, or DSA.

The Direct Surveillance Authority gives us the power to do a number of things.

Static observation, observations on the move, and it allows us to include some

phone work analysis on top of that as well. Because it's verbal, I haven't got

number, have I yet?

Do you know dates from and to?

Could I find this person without putting them under surveillance?

If the answer is no, then you are left with the only option.

It's really quite serious, purely because you are taking away people's

rights. And we don't take that lightly.

Everyone has a right to privacy, but you lose that right as soon as you try to

commit criminality or put the public in danger.

Thanks, Sam. Bye.

Fantastic.

You know, we've got the DSA now.

With the authorisation now in place, the team establish a green room.

Dan, it's Amy Beckett, I'm in the green room. We'll set up a green room when we

need to get a number of units together to make critical decisions.

Come on, and then you can just work with my team.

The green room is a nerve centre.

Could you come to the green room, please, as soon as you can?

So, it's a collection of staff that are working to a common goal.

Listen, we've just been briefed on our pure...

researching, gathering evidence.

Yeah, just two texts, stay in line, two texts.

There's information being passed from person to person very, very quickly.

I want to know the ins and outs of that person's life.

What's their last known address?

What's their phone number?

What vehicle they used last?

All of that allows me to learn more about an individual.

The intelligence is that he's limited an address in Moffside.

Superintendent Paul Walker has been overseeing the operation from a risk

perspective.

So, what options have got available to me?

Clearly, there are all the options that we can consider.

One of them would be going to his address where he resides and conducting

overt warrant.

Third option would be to look at undertaking a covert operation.

with the intention of hopefully getting control of the subject and then taking

some proactive action against him at the relevant time.

That's perfect, thank you.

Right, we're going to go now.

Right, that's fine. Crack on.

A surveillance team cleared to use highly classified tactics are dispatched

an address associated with the subject.

This unit have clearance.

to monitor locations and targets covertly.

Cutting -edge monitoring technology must be positioned discreetly, near the

address, in the Moss Side area of Manchester.

Difficult. Difficult, yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you know that area.

You'll stick out like a sore thumb.

Yeah, I know. It's a bit in their backyard. He's been there since Polly's

up there, hasn't he?

So if we put it there... Yeah, we're looking at probably somewhere around

with a view of the address.

Yeah, I agree.

OK. Good luck, Polly.

Olashola Watson is already known to the police.

Diyaka's team have carried out a deeper background check on the police national

computer.

He's got multiple offences for abusing violence and in 2013 he crashed

a club and basically a fight ensued where one was stabbed.

If I got background activity then that...

Spells to me that that's a very dangerous person.

The team have information on the subject, which shows they may be

an address in Moss Side.

This is Moss Side.

Used to have a really bad reputation probably 20, 30 years ago.

You remember the term, gun jester?

Well, for territorial gander.

It still goes on.

The Kovac units are nearing the suspect's address.

One officer is already at the location, positioning the monitoring technology,

while the other remains with the vehicle.

Which officer is shooting now?

That's the most touchy point, you know,

getting out there for only a matter of minutes, but you could feel like 20

minutes.

There's a series of consequences if the surveillance officer is spotted.

Will they be confronted violently?

And there's the future of your operation.

you might not be able to use that tactic again because the subject knows that

they're under surveillance.

There's definitely risks.

They are serious criminals.

They've got lots of capabilities, be it firearms, drugs, weapons.

So you feel like everyone's watching you.

And people will see you, but you've just got to anticipate that.

If anyone does stop you and ask you why you're there, you'd come up with a plan

and you'd have it in your head already, a reason why you'd be in that location.

It's their job to spot us and it's our job in a way not to be spotted.

Greater Manchester police are trying to locate and apprehend a known criminal

who they suspect is planning on taking a firearm to a concert in central

Manchester.

A covert unit have successfully positioned surveillance technology

outside the suspect's address.

An unknown male was seen leaving the property, but the team are confident

haven't been spotted.

In the green room, the feed is

being monitored and the team turn their attention to the male seen leaving the

address.

We're just trying to decide whether he's our target subject.

It's hard.

Can't tell if that is the suspect.

We don't know.

He's walked away from the house. OK.

That's his front door.

And he's just come walking out of that.

Right, OK.

So, we don't have control of him now?

He's frustrated.

He's committed a serious act of violence against people. He's got convictions

for violence.

My objective is to try and put the interception in at the point where we

he's picked his firearm up.

The recovery of that firearm from a public protection point of view is

good for us to take that firearm away from criminal hands.

we get an effective control of the suspect and then we remove a gun as

So it's an escalation to the tactical firearms commander.

Superintendent Paul Walker leads the highly skilled firearms unit.

He will make decisions on how and when to intervene once Watson is located.

The deployment of firearms officers to arrest someone is not a decision that's

taken lightly. To get to the stage where we are deploying an armed operation,

the threat level is up there and it necessitates it.

Seeing armed officers deployed in a situation might cause the public some

concern. You know, what's happening, what the threat is, are they at risk

themselves? And I fully understand that.

We've seen, sadly, on many cases, much publicised cases and in the media, where

innocent members of the public have been going about the daily business and have

become tragic innocent victims of the discharge of a firearm within a crowded

place.

So the decisions I make to deploy those armed officers have got to stand up to

scrutiny.

Confirm you've all proceeded?

Yes.

Yeah, the juice that we're currently not having control of the subject.

I want you to deploy to the venue. I want you to remain in your vehicles

we continue to develop the information intelligence picture.

Armed officers are deployed to the venue in case there's a sighting.

One option from the outset is to just park them over police vehicles outside

venue and try and disrupt any sort of activity that's taking place, which

mitigates the threat very, very short term, but doesn't achieve sustained

protection by seeking to recover the firearm.

Whereas if we can locate him with the firearm while still mitigating the

at the premises, we win on two fronts, essentially.

So at the present time... It's still very much a covert operation.

Everyone going into the venue will be searched.

That's a pat down.

There are bag searches.

There are battle detectors.

But it's not for the security to tackle that person. It's for us to tackle that

individual. And that's what we do.

The venue is now open.

Armed units position themselves discreetly near the venue.

Just checking.

Has he come home since we saw him go out?

As far as we're aware, since we've been here, he's not gone in that house.

OK.

Is the phone live?

I'll check them up now, Bob. It's absolutely critical we get that data.

If you think about how often you use your phone, it creates a data line.

Can you have a look and see if there's anything in on it yet?

You are leaving a footprint.

Everywhere you go.

Is there any way we can rush it along?

Locate the subject.

That's the main aim.

The data's come back.

Can you interpret it to give a location and a time and date? Yeah.

Yeah, well, you've got time, date and IP session.

So, how current's that?

Well, this is up to 4 past 12 today.

It might as well be two weeks old. I'm not interested about what he was doing

midday.

The available phone data only shows the suspect's historic move.

You can't rely solely on phone data.

It depends on the time of day. It depends on how busy the network is.

Five o 'clock at night, the network is going to be super, super busy because

everyone's finishing work, contacting their loved ones, using internet

devices. We're not getting anywhere with the call data.

It's frustrating and you're just trying to find other lines of inquiry.

Who's that?

Is that... Did the club put it?

Yeah, yeah.

It's just been to the front door.

That's what he was wearing before, wasn't it? He was wearing all black with

black night baseball cap on.

My God, swine.

Been to the front door. It's not nice to get after.

He appeared to be a little bit more bulkier and taller than our subject.

With the man at the address not fitting the description of the suspect, Watson's

whereabouts is still unknown.

But the police have a new lead.

Up -to -date phone data has come in.

Where he's travelled from and to.

So have you got that journey?

I'm just going to put it out now.

He's gone from Pantor and he was there last there at 15 .12.

The next one, seven minutes later, M22.

M22 time?

15 .19 .43.

Well, then at 15 .27, he's at M21.

He's there, he's there, he's there.

Looks like he stays there for a bit.

And then seconds later, he's at M16.

He's gone with us.

And gone.

Then he... He's in the city centre.

Pretty much on the roof.

Shit.

You need to go and tell the boss?

Yeah.

Boss, he's in the city centre.

I'm just getting... We're just doing the readings now, but ten minutes ago, he

was in town.

CFV, OFV.

So what's the cell there showing?

M2, 5BG, which is practically on Peter Street.

Well, practically the venue.

Yeah. I mean, you can't get really closer to the venue than the cell.

We think he's in the area of Albert Hall, which is where the event has taken

place. Greater Manchester Police have received information that a known

is suspected to be taking a firearm to a concert in central Manchester this

evening.

He's moved from his home address and got to the venue without us seeing him.

Data from Watson's phone has shown it to be cell sighting in the vicinity of the

Albert Hall.

Covert units are positioned nearby, but have not yet identified anyone

matching his description.

I'm just going to give the ARVs a quick briefing in relation to a deployment I

want them to do.

I don't know where our subject is at this point.

So my thinking now switches to what can I do around that venue to mitigate

the threat.

Yes, the OSC.

Yes, yes.

Due to the timeframe now coming up for the closeness of the event starting, I

want you to deploy within visual distance of the premises.

Armed response vehicles, or ARVs, are officers deployed in marked police cars

carrying firearms.

They are sent near to the venue to monitor the area.

What I'm mindful of is that while we don't have control of the subject, the

event's starting in 1900 hours.

Should something happen that's beyond our control, I want some over ARVs close

to the premises who can either respond or are also in a position to provide a

visual deterrent.

There's obviously going to be a lot of people at the venue, isn't there?

Thousands. This is a huge event. Big rift in a venue like that for innocent

people to get shot.

The city centre is a place which is obviously vulnerable.

Somebody armed with a loaded firearm is unpredictable.

It's devastating what the impact could be to the public.

Police say that this is the third firearms -related murder this week.

National Crime Agency fears there are more guns in the hands of organised

criminals than ever before.

We had a one -off incident, hopefully it's a one -off incident, where somebody

is prepared to discharge a shotgun into a crowd.

We've had recent incidents.

A lot of innocent people have tragically lost their lives.

They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

We've seen four more newly -inferred firearms, four more firearms that have

used for the first time. That very clearly spells out a problem.

Guns don't belong on the street at all.

They've got a gun, man.

What the...?

Fire can cause a lot of collateral damage.

The panic that it creates could cause more casualties.

I've seen the damage gun crime causes to families.

It's devastating.

Right at the forefront of my mind is we don't want those things happening again.

We need to prevent those things from happening again.

So it's absolutely critical we get that response right.

multiple units are positioned close to the venue you

position yourself towards the front of the venue where the metal detectors are

Obviously, if he is cited in the queue, I need to sit that straight away in

terms of who is with and the size of queue, etc., obviously, and then I'll

a decision on it.

Two options, really.

Don't do anything and let him go into the venue, which isn't ideal and goes

against what we're trying to achieve.

Or take some action in the queue and potentially create a dangerous situation

for us and members of the public within the queue.

Neither of them are ideal options.

If they come back and say positive ID, probably look to try and intercept him

from the queue.

It's quite low -key, sort of take him out from the queue, but we'll just have

wait and see what they come back with.

It's the achievability of it. It's obviously not the greatest environment

work in.

The person who was a possible has gone into the premises and they're happy he's

not in.

So we're a little bit stuck at present.

We've potentially got a situation now where he's inside the premises,

potentially in possession of a firearm.

And it is worthwhile trying to get a spotter in the venue.

Having to deploy armed officers inside a crowded music venue.

People are likely to be intoxicated. People may be using recreational drugs.

Maybe people in that venue will seek to cause violence or harm towards police.

It's very, very, very risky for the officers and the public.

We can't really do a great deal about that at this time.

We're certainly not in a position to go inside that premises and try and locate

him because of the other risks and threats that creates inside that

the other people.

This is the scenario that I didn't want.

We don't have him under control.

We've never had tight control of him.

And this has been the problem.

It's always been.

A couple of steps behind.

The last phone data has placed Watson near to the venue, but the team have had

no confirmed sightings.

So it's now how do we get control over him?

We've requested a call data again, haven't we, Amy?

Yeah.

Superintendent Walker has received some further phone data.

It's eventually home.

From the call data?

Yeah.

That phone had moved from the city back towards my side.

Well, I don't know if it's in the address, so I don't know if it's going

him or not.

It's a bit suspicious.

It begs the question, is he with his phone?

The thing I need to do now, mate, is clarify, is he home? It might be in the

house, but it doesn't mean to say he's in the house with it.

Criminals are very aware that we can track phone data.

He's not savvy. He could have left it with someone else, while he's somewhere

else. He's left his phone there because he's going to go and do some

naughtiness. It happens on loads of occasions whereby a subject will be on

to go and commit a crime, they'll leave their phone in another location in order

to say, well, my phone wasn't there, I wasn't there, so therefore it didn't

happen. There was a lot of guessing, didn't there?

Oh, yeah, we don't know.

We don't know anything about this phone, do we? We don't know what he uses it

for. We don't know if it's a dirty phone, we don't know if it's a clean

We don't know how many phones he's got.

We don't know anything, do we? If you want to...

Conduct criminal business.

Like, you don't want Lincoln to you, then you've got to have another phone

number. He might have three phones.

An iPhone 13.

A brand -new phone.

It's around understanding the context.

We've got a phone number. We know he's using that phone number, but what does

use that phone for?

He's calling taxes and stuff on it. Yeah. Family?

Misses. Right.

So it's not like a drug line or something like that, is it? No, it's

Not a dirty phone. Yeah.

It'll be a clean phone.

So, essentially, we don't know where he is, but our best guess is that he's

potentially back at home. Yeah, at the minute, yeah. At the minute.

Right, OK.

We'll have to see what happens.

Yeah.

A surveillance team are now positioned outside Watson's address, anticipating

may have returned home.

Alongside them are a counter -terrorist specialist firearms unit.

This team of armed officers are trained to respond to the most high -risk

situations.

We work covertly, supporting surveillance teams.

This is the pinnacle of firearms policing.

The most highly trained, the most exposed, operationally and nationally.

to work all over the country, dealing with extreme threats.

people who are intent on killing innocent people.

You've got to think about the mindset of these individuals.

A person who's taken possession of a firearm, to enable them to deal drugs or

attack rival gang members, you've got to bear in mind their mindset, what

they're willing to do and what level they're willing to go to.

When someone's lost that ability to...

see consequence and is not fazed by the thought of killing someone.

That's what we needed.

We are the protection for the surveillance team.

We're going to have a ten minute scrum down. Okay.

New intelligence means further considerations for the team.

The problem that we've got is it's less than two and a half miles between his

home address and the venue.

It's a 15 -minute drive.

So there's a very, very short window from the address towards the city

But obviously all that can happen really quickly. So once we get a movement, I

need everyone to be ready, listening to everything.

It's going to be pretty sharp. We're going to get on to it pretty quickly.

Right, see how we get on.

I'm concerned for our subject.

There you go.

A mail matching Watson's description has been seen leaving the address.

This is live. Let's put this back.

The playback's going to be on air. Playback's on air.

Does he walk past the camera this way?

Difficult at night time to positively ID someone.

Slow it down now.

There's a firearms team ready to deploy.

So misidentification can be fatal.

If someone's saying, oh, I don't know, you're not going to go near that

identification.

Unable to confirm if it's Watson through the night vision feed, the team must

rely on the covert unit monitoring the address.

I think that's going to be the subject.

I needed to say it.

The team have what they suspect to be an ID on the male who left the address,

and it is likely to be what... That doesn't, at present for me, reach any

tipping points, but what it does do is build a picture for us and hopefully

that we don't lose control of him now going forward, doesn't it?

We find that, in most cases, criminals don't have a firearm in their home

address.

If they had the gun there, they'd go into prison for five -plus years.

It's probably more likely he's got it stashed somewhere, isn't it?

The team suspect that the man heading into the address is the target, Olajola

Watson.

What address has he gone into?

He probably had a wanted mail job there before.

Oh, I know the job. I know the job.

Yeah, it was a gang member.

Following a shooting.

The address is connected to a suspected criminal already known to the police.

That's the house he's running to. Yeah.

He's a proper, proper OCG. Yeah.

There you go. That's fucking van Gogh. Yeah.

There's just potentially a bit of something up.

If he's going to pick up a gun, this is where he's picked it up from.

The suspect is heading away from the home address in a vehicle.

Units are in pursuit.

If he's going in the direction of the city centre, if he's within

striking distance of the venue, then we need to do something before he gets

there, basically.

We're going away from the city, innit?

We'll see where it goes now.

There's two opportunities to pick something up.

It's a 15 -minute drive to the venue.

Having stopped briefly at the address, the suspect restarts the journey in the

same car.

Superintendent Walker must now decide if and when to strike on the vehicle.

Hi, boss.

I'm thinking we've got in on two other unknown males now in a vehicle.

If you go in towards the 50, then I think the tipping point's net.

You've got to be really focused on what you're doing because ultimately you're

making really important decisions.

We do have to strike on this car quickly.

What's the most appropriate tactic?

State amber, state amber, M4 stock extraction.

We work on it, it's acting like it's done.

State amber is when the tipping point's met.

When I give their amber, I'm then saying, right, we're now going to take

action.

I'll tell them what the tactic is.

The vehicle continues in the direction of the venue on Peter Street.

As

close

as we're going to get. And then when we go up the red,

we won't have to do it.

That is when the actual strike is going on.

As soon as you hear that phrase, you switch

on.

You prepare yourself. You check your kit again and again, making sure

everything's right.

Because in a very short period of time, you could be making life -changing

decisions.

Everything comes down to those few seconds.

So a few seconds when you're calling the strike and you're then waiting for that

update, yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on in your mind, lots of stuff to

think about.

Get out of the car.

Keep going.

We've achieved what we set out to achieve.

We've got a positive outcome.

And everyone's there.

They say normally, strike, arrest,

targets. I'm not buying, I'm going home now.

But now I'm waiting to see if we've got something.

They've detained four males and all four have been arrested for suspected

possession of firearms.

We've had what is called a full forensic list of the vehicles and a full search

will be conducted on that.

So we'll wait the outcome of that really.

The public knew the detail of what we analyse before we start an armed

operation. I think they'd have 100 % confidence in what we do.

Innocent people are killed through the criminal use of firearms.

Our information was that he was going to be armed, so that's what we managed on

that day.

And nobody got hurt.

Before coming to the police, I didn't realise how much of an issue guns were.

I'd like to think that the preventative side of things is probably the answer.

That is why we rely so much on intelligence in the community.

There's always people out there that want to do good and want to tell us and

give us that sort of leg up to catch the baddies.

If we don't follow the intelligence and something happens, we would be rightly

criticised from a public point of view. It can only be positive.

I think it shows how serious we say this type of offending and this type of

threat, and by conducting operations like this, we seem to mitigate that harm

before it happens.

We can prevent that firearms discharge occurring.

We can prevent someone becoming a victim.

That's what the public want us to do. That's our job, ultimately.