Last night the 6 day man-hunt for Raoul Moat finally ended in a field in Rothbury. I had watched the scene unfold via the amazing piece of reporting that is Sky News - I'd started out on the BBC but they only had images from hours before so I hope the person responsible is going to be 'sent on a course' soon.
The whole thing was very surreal actually; my Twitter stream was updating furiously with some brilliantly inspired Moat jokes: "Whats the difference between Ashley Cole and Raoul Moat? Moat is still fumbling around in a Geordie bush", "Raoul Moat.The most dangerous ginger to emerge from the woods since last month's fox attack" and "Raoul Moat just became the Mayor of Rothbury Riverbank on FourSquare" were a few of my personal favourites.
Incredibly, at one point the drunken, crybaby ex-footballer, wife-beating loser Paul Gascoine turned up claiming to be Moat's friend, bearing a chicken dinner, a fishing rod, a dressing gown, some beer and a phone. Although I don't think that fishing by the river with some tinnies and a KFC in cosy nightwear is what Moat had in mind. It was not one of Gazza's finest moments - if indeed he has ever had any. Like an embarrassing sexual-encounter, nobody has mentioned it this morning.
Watching it unfold was quite exciting, somewhat boring and yet also a little sad; I'm sure when he was an 8 year old boy opening his Christmas presents, neither he nor his parents had any idea it would all end in an armed stand-off in some field in the rain. I can't imagine how his 3 young children will get their heads round the whole thing; even if they were shielded from the TV and newspaper headlines, someone will surely mention it at some point. How horrible.
It also looks like everyone in the area knew he was hiding in a storm drain in the middle of town but hadn't thought to mention it; in fact, someone said he was walking down the high street at one point. He was also nicking veg from peoples allotments - although in my opinion, if you can tell that only ONE tomato is missing, then you're taking the whole 'living off the land' thing a bit too seriously. Moat was partial to a raw courgette we understand.
I decided to turn the TV off around 1am because it could just go on all night, then shortly afterwards he shot himself so I missed it. Not that you saw anything, you heard a gunshot then lots of shouting 'put the gun away' and dogs barking, but could only see a policeman standing in the rain looking at nothing in the dark.
I imagine they shot him in the head for his chicken dinner and wanted to get it all finalised for the morning paper deadline. Interestingly police say it 'appeared' he shot himself (twice) even though they were right there.
Now you would think once you have shot yourself once you would learn from that and not want to do it a second time. I very much enjoyed the Ashley Cole joke but you really shouldn't have put Gene Hunt at the top of the page. I got totally distracted by Gene who can shoot me with his hand gun anytime.
ReplyDeleteI listened to the Gazza interview - how very sad... Its all a bit of a tragedy isn't it? And the whole Raoul Moat thing is quite sad too...
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the shooting himself twice part. How does one manage that? Mind you, he succeeded in shooting two other people without killing them, so I suppose there is a precedent.
ReplyDeleteHad to look up this Moat thing - nothing about it on American news.
ReplyDeleteNow how did he get a shotgun? Guns are so evil and everyone has one in Vegas.