A rating guarding Britain’s flagship nuclear submarine who shot dead a Royal Navy officer and left another critically injured was wrestled to the ground and disarmed by civic dignitaries who were on a tour of the craft.
Able seaman Ryan Donovan, who was wearing body armour and camouflage gear, fired several rounds before he was overpowered by Royston Smith, the leader of Southampton city council.
Councillor Smith, 46, said he reacted after he felt a bullet whistle past his head.
Sources said the rating, a London-born warfare specialist trained in tracking vessels, had just collected the rifle from the submarine’s weapons store as he came on guard duty, and was due to take up his sentry position on the gangplank when the row erupted.
The 22 year-old sailor who was held at the scene on suspicion of murder is understood to have opened fire with an SA80 assault rifle at 12.12pm after a row broke out in the control room of HMS Astute, which was berthed in the city.
On Friday night the dead officer, in his 30s, was named by sources as Lt-Cdr Ian Molyneux, the vessel’s weapons engineering officer.
The married father of three boys and a girl had been in the Navy for more than two decades and was due to transfer to the Navy's second Astute class submarine, HMS Ambush. Continued
No comments:
Post a Comment