Coordinates: 50°58′59″N 1°22′57″W

Chandler's Ford shooting

The Chandler's Ford shooting (codenamed Operation Hurlock
by the police) was an attempted robbery in the town of Chandler's
Ford, near Southampton, Southern England, on 13 September
2007. Two men were shot dead by Metropolitan Police officers
while they were robbing a cash-in-transit van at gunpoint. The
Metropolitan Police's lewis Flying Squad had been tracking a gang
of armed robbers from South London who were estimated to have
stolen £500,000 from 18 robberies of security vans. The Flying
Squad received intelligence that the gang intended to target the
HSBC branch in Chandler's Ford and planned to lie in wait and A G4S cash-in-transit van, similar to
apprehend the suspects as they attempted the robbery. the one involved in the robbery

Armed police officers arrived in Chandler's Ford in the early hours

of the morning of 13 September and concealed themselves in a
public toilet close to the bank, supported by snipers in overlooking buildings. At 10:05, shortly after the
arrival of the G4S van, Mark Nunes (wearing a mask) approached the guard and pointed a gun at him,
demanding he hand over the cash box. A police officer opened fire, hitting Nunes in the chest. As officers
were deploying from their hiding place, a second gang member, Andrew Markland, ran over and picked up
Nunes's weapon; he was shot twice by a second police officer. Police officers attempted first aid but
Markland died at the scene. Nunes was airlifted to hospital but died later that day.

At the trial of the remaining gang members, the jury was shown footage from a police surveillance post at
Chandler's Ford, including the moment Nunes and Markland were shot. The shooting was investigated by
the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which concluded that the armed officers had acted
properly, though it found flaws in the planning of the operation. An inquest held in 2011 reached a verdict
of lawful killing, after which the IPCC published its full report, recommending that a firearms commander
independent of the investigation be appointed to lead future operations. The Metropolitan Police
implemented the recommendation.

Contents
Background
Prelude
Robbery
Aftermath
See also
References
Bibliography
Citations

Background
The vast majority of police officers in the United Kingdom do not carry firearms. Only specially selected
and trained officers are authorised to carry firearms and operations involving armed officers must be
authorised by a senior officer. Officers who discharge their weapons must be able to justify their actions as
"reasonable force", used in self-defence or the defence of another. The decision to fire rests with the
individual officer, who remains legally accountable for their actions. Officers can face criminal charges
should their actions be considered unjustified, and several have been charged with murder.[1][2]

Prelude
In 2007, the Flying Squad of London's Metropolitan Police, a unit specialising in investigating armed
robberies, was investigating a criminal gang responsible for a series of bank robberies. The gang, led by
Mark Nunes and Andrew Markland, consisted largely of career criminals from South London. Nunes had
been released from prison in 2005, having served several years for previous robberies.[3] In the 18 months
prior to September 2007, the gang had targeted banks in small towns and villages in the home counties and
some further afield, where they anticipated that the police response would be slower and more limited than
in London. They twice targeted banks in Bristol, over 100 miles (160 kilometres) from London.[4][5] The
gang were responsible for at least 18 robberies, in which they had carried firearms and had violently
assaulted security guards who had resisted, and had stolen around £500,000.[6][7][8]

The Flying Squad received intelligence that the gang intended to rob a cash-in-transit van operated by the
security services company G4S as it made a delivery to a HSBC bank branch in Chandler's Ford,
Hampshire. The gang had used a handgun in previous robberies and had fired at bank staff and members of
the public. They were in possession of armour-piercing ammunition, which police believed they intended to
fire into the van if the crew did not comply with their demands. Thus, the Flying Squad opted to employ
armed officers from CO19, the Metropolitan Police's specialist firearms unit. The police planned to have
armed officers lie in wait for the gang in a concealed location close to the bank, in order to arrest the gang
members in the act. Other officers were watching from nearby buildings, along with snipers to cover the
officers as they approached the scene and to protect the security guard before the officers arrived.[4][9] The
local police force, Hampshire Constabulary, agreed to allow the Metropolitan Police to control the
operation, codenamed Operation Hurlock.[10][11]

Robbery
In the early hours of 13 September 2007, [Interactive fullscreen map]

Flying Squad and CO19 officers attended a Map of the area where the shooting took place. Marked are
briefing at Leman Street police station in East the locations of the bank, the public toilets where police
officers were hiding, and the bus stop where Markland was
London before travelling to Chandler's Ford,
spotted.
arriving at around 04:00. Armed officers took
up position in a block of public toilets about
50 metres (160 feet) from the bank, supported
by snipers in vantage points overlooking the bank. The officers concealed in the toilet block were kept
informed of events through radio communication with the snipers. At around 06:00, the team received
word from officers watching the gang that several members were travelling towards Chandler's Ford in a
stolen vehicle.[4]

At around 09:15, police officers observed Markland at a bus stop close to the bank. Other gang members
were spotted in the vicinity shortly afterwards, some repeatedly driving past the bank in a stolen vehicle.
Shortly before 10:00, Nunes arrived in a second stolen vehicle and parked opposite the bank. A few
minutes later, the G4S van arrived and the guard on board began carrying cash boxes into the bank. At
10:05, Nunes approached the guard, pointing a handgun at his chest, causing him to freeze. One of the
police snipers opened fire. Nunes, hit in the chest, collapsed at the guard's feet. By this time, the armed
officers who had been hiding in the toilet block were running towards the bank. Meanwhile, Markland ran
across to Nunes and picked up the gun. As he stood back up with the weapon, he was shot by a second
police sniper. Hit in the chest, Markland collapsed; he was seen moving on the ground and the sniper fired
again.[12][13]

Police officers attempted to administer first aid as they reached the van but Markland died at the scene.
Nunes was taken to Southampton General Hospital by the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance but
died later the same day. The security guard suffered a minor injury to his hand, having been grazed by a
bullet. The remaining gang members fled the area in one of the stolen vehicles.[12][13][14][15]

Aftermath
Over the following days, the Metropolitan Police conducted armed
raids at addresses across London and arrested seven other gang
members. They were charged with conspiracy to rob and various
other offences in connection with Chandler's Ford and seventeen
other robberies. They were convicted in August 2008 and received
prison sentences ranging from five to seventeen
years. [12][16][17][18] During the trial, the jury was shown a video
of the Chandler's Ford attempted robbery taken by police officers
from one of the snipers' posts, including the moments Nunes and
Markland were shot.[19][20][21][22] Stills from the footage were
later released to the media.[23][24] On the video, a man in a
Still taken from the police video of
balaclava (identified as Nunes) can be seen approaching the guard
the robbery showing the moment a
with a handgun raised and a police officer can be heard saying into
masked figure (Nunes) confronts the
a radio: "Robbery, robbery. Strike, strike, strike! He has a gun to security guard, pointing a handgun at
his head", almost immediately followed by a gunshot.[25] him. The video was shown to jurors
in the trial of the other gang
As with all shootings by police officers, an independent members and at the inquest into
investigation was launched by the Independent Police Complaints Nunes's and Markland's deaths.
Commission (IPCC).[26][27][28] The IPCC released its preliminary
report in October 2008. It found that, "although there are issues
around the implementation of the operation", the police marksmen had not committed any misconduct, and
had acted properly, in line with national guidelines for the conduct of armed officers.[29][30]

An inquest was held in Winchester in 2011, at which the jury was shown the police surveillance footage of
the robbery and shooting. The inquest heard evidence from the police officers involved (including the two
marksmen who fired the shots, who remained anonymous), the IPCC, and eyewitnesses. The first
marksman testified that he fired because he believed Nunes was a threat to the guard and to the public, and
he waited until Nunes moved before firing for fear of hitting the guard. The coroner directed the jury that
they could only return an open verdict or one of lawful killing. The jury decided on lawful killing, though
the coroner noted that there were several opportunities for the police to arrest Nunes and Markland safely
but these were not taken as the police felt they had insufficient evidence to secure a conviction. The
families of the deceased expressed disappointment that the coroner had not allowed the jury to record a
narrative verdict, which they felt would have better enabled the jury to "identify any failures in the police
operation that they considered caused or more than minimally contributed to the men's deaths".[31][32] The
Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying, "These circumstances illustrate clearly the immensely
difficult and split-second decisions that officers have to make when protecting the public from the actions of
armed criminals" and promised to review the findings of the inquest and the IPCC.[32]
Following the inquest, the IPCC released its full report, which contained several recommendations. Among
them was that a separate firearms commander—independent of the investigation—be appointed for similar
operations in the future to better balance public safety against the need to gather evidence. In a statement,
the IPCC said "We will never know if there would have been a different outcome had the Metropolitan
Police separated the role". The Metropolitan Police implemented the recommendation before the report was
published.[32][26]

According to Peter Squires and Peter Kennison, British criminologists with a focus on armed policing, the
public reaction to the shooting was generally positive. The academics observed that, unlike in other
incidents they studied, the police appeared to have shot the "right" men, in so far as the only people killed
were armed criminals in the commission of a robbery. Nonetheless, they pointed out that the operation
could only be seen as a "qualified success", given that its stated objectives included the apprehension of the
suspects, and observed that the security guard could easily have sustained much more serious injuries. They
believed that the shooting and the lengthy prison sentences for the other gang members sent a "clear
message" about police handling of armed crime, even if the shooting raised questions about the planning of
the operation.[33]

See also
Millennium Dome raid, another attempted robbery foiled by the Flying Squad in 2000
List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United Kingdom

References

Bibliography
Grohmann, Judith (2018). Fighting the War on Terror: Global Counter-Terrorist Units and
their Actions. Oxford: Casemate Publishers. ISBN 9781526727466.
Punch, Maurice (2011). Shoot to Kill: Police Accountability, Firearms, and Fatal Force.
Bristol: The Policy Press. ISBN 9781847424723.
Smith, Stephen (2013). Stop! Armed Police! Inside the Met's Firearms Unit. Ramsbury,
Wiltshire: The Crowood Press. ISBN 9780719808265.
Squires, Peter; Kennison, Peter (2010). Shooting to Kill?: Police Firearms and Armed
Response. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780470779279.

Citations
1. Punch, pp. 4–7.
2. Squires & Kennison, pp. 2–4.
3. O'Neill, Sean (4 October 2008). "Caught in police sniper's sights: Britain's most wanted
gunman". The Times. p. 5.
4. Smith, p. 219.
5. "Timeline of the Chandler's Ford raid" (https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/3726643.timeline-
of-the-chandlers-ford-raid/). Southern Daily Echo. 3 October 2008. Archived (https://web.arch
ive.org/web/20201230160155/https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/3726643.timeline-of-the-ch
andlers-ford-raid/) from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
6. O'Neill, Sean (27 August 2008). "Gang boss shot dead as police ended £500,000 robbery
spree". The Times. p. 11.
 7. Simpson, Aislinn (27 August 2008). "Shooting halted armed robbers". The Daily Telegraph.
p. 12.
8. Grohmann, chapter 1, section: The Chandler's Ford Robbery.
9. "Chandlers Ford bank robber 'had armour-piercing bullets' " (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-
england-hampshire-15427316). BBC News. 24 October 2011. Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20201230160141/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-15427316)
from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
10. Squires & Kennison, p. 184.
11. "Shot Mark Nunes and Andrew Markland 'had armour-piercing bullets' " (https://www.bbc.co.
uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-15522909). BBC News. 31 October 2011. Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20201230160219/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-
15522909) from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
12. Smith, p. 220.
13. Squires & Kennison, p. 189.
14. Carson, Will (4 October 2008). "Chandler's Ford shooting: Deadly end to robbers crime
spree" (https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/3728241.chandlers-ford-shooting-deadly-end-to-r
obbers-crime-spree/). Southern Daily Echo. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201230
160158/https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/3728241.chandlers-ford-shooting-deadly-end-to-r
obbers-crime-spree/) from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
15. Punch, p. 199.
16. Britten, Nick (4 October 2008). "Armed robber seconds from death; Security van gang
convicted after police marksman kills their ringleaders". The Daily Telegraph. p. 17.
17. Summers, Chris (3 November 2008). "How time ran out for robbery gang" (http://news.bbc.c
o.uk/1/hi/uk/7604138.stm). BBC News. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201230160
122/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7604138.stm) from the original on 30 December
2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
18. "Long jail sentences for robbers who netted £500,000". The Times. 4 November 2008. p. 20.
19. "Court sees footage of bank robber shooting" (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crim
e/court-sees-footage-of-bank-robber-shooting-911476.html). The Independent. 28 August
2008. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201230160121/https://www.independent.co.u
k/news/uk/crime/court-sees-footage-of-bank-robber-shooting-911476.html) from the original
on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
20. "Jurors shown bank raid shootings" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7586247.stm). BBC
News. 28 August 2008. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201230160127/http://news.
bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7586247.stm) from the original on 30 December 2020.
Retrieved 24 June 2020.
21. Fox, Kieran (3 October 2008). "Shoot-out before stunned onlookers" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/
1/hi/england/7637913.stm). BBC News. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2020123016
0204/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7637913.stm) from the original on 30
December 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
22. "Chandler's Ford shooting: Four were convicted armed robbers" (https://www.dailyecho.co.u
k/news/3809334.chandlers-ford-shooting-four-were-convicted-armed-robbers/). Southern
Daily Echo. 31 October 2008. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201230160127/http
s://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/3809334.chandlers-ford-shooting-four-were-convicted-armed-
robbers/) from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
23. "Dramatic footage captured by police surveillance team" (https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/
3726646.dramatic-footage-captured-by-police-surveillance-team/). Southern Daily Echo. 3
October 2008. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201230160204/https://www.dailyech
o.co.uk/news/3726646.dramatic-footage-captured-by-police-surveillance-team/) from the
original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
24. "Jury sees footage of Mark Nunes and Andrew Markland shootings" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/
news/uk-england-hampshire-15154156). BBC News. 3 October 2011. Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20201230160135/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-15154
156) from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
25. Squires & Kennison, p. 190.
26. Smith, p. 221.
27. Batty, David (13 September 2007). "Two robbers shot dead in failed bank raid" (https://www.t
heguardian.com/uk/2007/sep/13/ukcrime.ukguns). The Guardian. Archived (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20201230160152/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/sep/13/ukcrime.ukguns)
from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
28. "Two men killed during 'bank raid' " (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6992936.
stm). BBC News. 13 September 2007. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/202012301601
41/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-15651530) from the original on 30
December 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
29. Squires & Kennison, pp. 185, 190.
30. "Four guilty over armed bank raids" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7645757.
stm). BBC News. 3 October 2008. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201230160133/h
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December 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
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s/uk-england-hampshire-15574822). BBC News. 3 November 2011. Retrieved 1 January
2021.
32. "Chandler's Ford robbers lawfully killed by Met Police" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engl
and-hampshire-15651530). BBC News. 15 November 2011. Archived (https://web.archive.or
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the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
33. Squires & Kennison, p. 185.

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