"She was dead on the ground, on her front just by the drive of our house. "There were no big wounds at the back of Lisa's legs. Both recreational and agricultural shooting were normal occurrences in the area. "I just started to run. She was still wearing it, soaked now with Lisa Mildenhall's blood, when she was finally allowed back home. Armed with an automatic rifle, a pistol and at least one. Find Hungerford Michael Ryan stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Police during the investigation in August 1987, Killer Michael Robert Ryan murdered several people while they were driving, The remains of Michael Ryan's house in South View, after he set fire to it. His father, Alfred Henry Ryan, a government building inspector, was known for being a perfectionist and was 55 when Ryan was born.His mother, Dorothy Ryan, was over 20 years younger than her husband and was 34 when she had her only son. Short for his age, Ryan was often teased and bullied but never retaliated and consequently avoided other children. He uses it against the people he has grown up with and against the unarmed police that are called. Their car smashed into the back of another car. Amongst others also later commended for their bravery were ambulance-women Hazel Haslett and Linda Bright, who had been shot at by Ryan but who had continued working selflessly late into the night to help other victims.It was reported in the tabloid newspapers that following the public announcement of Ryans death, the people of Hungerford reacted with relieved delight. Rather than getting away from the carnage in South View, he started to check the houses to find and help the injured. The police officers at the scene did not apprehend him at this point, as they were unarmed. The Hungerford Report The British Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, travelled to Hungerford on Sunday, 23 August 1987. That summer afternoon Ryan, a 27-year-old unemployed labourer, killed 16 people . That was possibly even worse than hearing it the first time.". With Craig Jackson, Donal MacIntyre, Sean Preston, Michael Ryan. They keep meaning to frame it and put it up on the wall. He also knew the day would end in the loss of his own life, so in effect he was choosing when to die.". Sandra Hill, who'd moved away from the town, was visiting former school friends. She scrambled into her house, where she collapsed and her mother immediately called an ambulance. He threw his Kalashnikov out of the window, leaving him with only his 9mm Beretta and ammunition. Ryan was holding one of his most prized possessions - a Chinese copy of a Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifle. Dean reported later that when she looked Ryan in the face, it seemed as if he was not even aware of her and was looking right through her. As smoke filled the air from Ryans burning house, more people were hiding inside their homes. Her Majesty the Queens private secretary sent a letter of condolence from Buckingham Palace to Mayor Tarry and enclosed a personal contribution from the Queen. His wife, who had a bullet in her spine, was not expected to walk again. Here he shot her 13 times, dropped the groundsheet and returned to parking area. Alfred Ryan, Michael's father, had become a parent in his mid-50s and was about 20 years older than Dorothy. On 8 October 1987, a memorial and rededication service was held for the town of Hungerford. He tried pulling the trigger twice more, but both times the rifle failed to fire. It was Jane, PC Wainwright's then-wife. Find professional Hungerford Michael Ryan videos and stock footage available for license in film, television, advertising and corporate uses. Over the moon at the news of his father's survival, PC Wainwright telephoned his brothers and sister. "The station was locked, so I let myself in with a key. From the eerie quiet of Hungerford High Street after the murder of 16 people to the trail of blood leading up to the bedroom of an anonymous terraced house, Shepherd conjures up the uncanny. The town had long been a tourist destination. Getty Images offers exclusive rights-ready and premium royalty-free analog, HD, and 4K video of the highest quality. He believes Ryan would get an illicit sexual thrill during his woodland trips and obtain pleasure and a sense of accomplishment from following and watching people unseen. Prof Jackson's colleague at Birmingham City University, Dr Elizabeth Yardley, has a different theory. During the next 90 minutes, Brightwell and Ryan held a long and detailed conversation, during which Ryan seemed quite lucid, calm and easy to talk to. He cannot even pass the end of the road. The result was police were often up to 40 minutes behind his movements. Later that day, his parents were driving up from their home in Kent to visit him. After all, he was in the area and knew Mrs Dean. After the murders, though, visitors were less satisfied by remaining in the attractive main street. Having created a fort for himself in the Gibbs home, Ryan fired at neighbouring houses, injuring a man at number 62 and a woman at number 67 Priory Road.Ian Playle, a 34-year-old clerk to the Justices at Newbury Magistrates Court, had brought his wife, Elizabeth, and their two young children, Richard and Sarah, to Hungerford on a shopping trip. Hungerford is a pretty canalside town famous for its antiques shops and upmarket boutiques. ", PC Roger Brereton's funeral was held near Newbury. Saturday marks 30 years since Michael Ryan killed 16 people in Hungerford. I saw Robert Clements hed been walking the dog with his dad, Ken, and just witnessed him shot dead in South View. A few moths before the massacre, Ryan joined the Tunnel Rifle and Pistol Club, in Wiltshire. Michael Ryan: The Hungerford Massacre: Directed by Adam Luria. He found low-paid work as a caretaker at a girls school. After some time, young Hannah unbuckled their seatbelts, so they could go in search of their mother. Angrily, Ryan climbed out of the car and shot five bullets into the boot. She was inordinately lucky not to have been shot by him. He also had a more sinister motivation for visiting the woodland. A single man, unemployed and living with his mother, with no evidence of a romantic or sexual relationship in his life, he perhaps had precious little to be happy about. He took the firearms, packed the pockets of his flak jacket with ammunition and marched off down the road. Lisa Mildenhall had been in the garden with her sister and two children from another house. Then Ryan had shot and killed Abdul Khan, a hard-of-hearing 84-year-old who was gardening. Eric Vardy, a carpenter and van driver for Norland Nursery College, was on his way with passenger, Steven Ball, to a builders supplier. He looked at her. Shortly after Ms Haslett escaped South View, her colleague Derek Whiting arrived in a second ambulance, completely unaware that a gunman was at large. However, the jovial atmosphere was soon to be shattered and peoples lives changed forever.Savernake Forest, a popular recreational area seven miles from Hungerford, was a favourite haunt of Ryans, where he would spend great deals of time pretending to be on army manoeuvres. At age 16, he left John OGaunt School to attend a technical college, the Newbury College of Further Education, intending to learn to become a building contractor.Although he tried hard, it soon became apparent that Ryan showed no flair for this trade and soon dropped out of college. Prof Jackson says it was at this point Ryan changed his plans. An investigation after the shootings found both Dorothy and Michael Ryan had been overdrawn on their bank accounts - in Dorothy's case largely because she bought her only child a new car every two years. Without replying, Ryan shot his mother twice in the stomach and once in the leg. One of the Tactical Firearms Unit climbed onto the school roof and with a mirror on a long pole, managed to see into the classroom at last. He liked to think of himself as a soldier, skilled at surveillance without being seen himself. Trevor Wainwright says he is "haunted" by his father's death. "I said he could, and he said: 'When that man shot that man, all of the birds flew out of the trees and shat themselves'. It was confirmed that Michael Robert Ryan had fatally shot himself at 6.52 pm on Wednesday, 19 August 1987, with a single gunshot to the head. It was his gun cupboard. He would also brag to people about things he had not done, in a string of lies that made him seem far more capable and experienced than he actually was. Chief Inspector Lambert had sent Sergeant Paul Brightwell and his team of eight officers from the Tactical Firearms Unit to investigate the school, unaware that this was indeed the exact location of the killer. A right little sod. Now, as his colleague, quantity surveyor George White, drove him home to check on his wife, they came across Ryan. February 27, 2023 equitable estoppel california No Comments . Ryan was 25 when his father died of cancer in 1985. It was a police vehicle which had its blue lights flashing. In a further twist of fate, the local police helicopter was in for repair but police mechanics eventually made it ready for flight and it was deployed at around the time Ryan shot his mother. Another reporter followed their sister home from the hospital. "In fact, I first thought it was another lad who lived there. "I turned to move away and he shot me. Ryan fired at helicopters from this window. "Ivor has very limited mobility, and his lungs are damaged from the bullet. "He was trapped and didn't have a viable way out of his situation.". Ryan was finally cornered and an armed officer trained his sights on him. Adding to the sound of gunfire in the area was the fact that the Thames Valley firearms squad were in training, about 40 miles away. Victims were taken to the Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon. Moving up Fairview Road, Ryan found neighbour, Abdul Khan, 84, a retired restaurateur, mowing the lawn in his back garden. It banned the ownership of semi-automatic firearms and pump-action weapons and made registration mandatory for shotgun owners. As he drove the three-and-a-half miles a news report came on the radio about a suspected armed robbery at a petrol station in Froxfield. An elderly neighbour, Dorothy Smith, 77 years old and deaf in one ear, had come out into the street to see what all the noise was about. Unfortunately, the bullet travelled up into Alisons lower back, leaving her permanently disabled. In a small village 60 miles west of London, at 12:30 in the afternoon, 27-year-old Michael Ryan shoots a mother dead. When he was 13 his mother bought him an air rifle. This seemed to fit the profile of Michael Ryan. The local police station had only two working phone lines that day and the police helicopter was being repaired, delaying its deployment. Harries later received the Queens Commendation for Brave Conduct. The gunman was reloading his weapon and Mrs Wainwright thought he would shoot at her again. People were said to have run into the streets chanting, The bastards dead, the bastards dead, whilst children cycled around on their bikes, yelling Good riddance, and people in pubs toasted his death. They'll do what we did. Ms Haslett reversed rapidly and she and her partner escaped with only minor injuries. Mrs Wainwright had the presence of mind to get out of the car and cower behind it. The Jacksons had loved their home on South View, with its large garden, and were in the process of buying it. Brightwell immediately informed his superior and Hungerford was declared safe for the waiting ambulances and fire engines to move in to the former danger zone. 20th August 1987. Ryan's mother consistently pandered to her husband and son so Michael saw her as someone who was there to do things for him and essentially serve him - so he felt a sense of entitlement to treat her however he wanted.". No-one blamed me. The wheelchair-bound Myrtle was totally vulnerable and Victor threw himself across her to protect her from the crazed gunman. He got me in my lower back. The boy enjoyed pointing his weapon at cows, birds and even other children, says Dr Yardley. Later, police told her they believed her life had been saved by the fact she'd kept her curtains drawn as she pottered about, doing her housework in her nightgown. But how did the town heal its wounds? The Victims - 19 August 1987: Susan Godfrey, 35 shot and died, Kakoub Dean shot at (missed, then firearm malfunctioned), Police Constable Roger Brereton shot and died, Hazel Haslett windscreen shot, injured by glass and survived, Kathleen Wainwright, 62 shot and survived, Man from 62 Priory Road shot and survived, Woman from 71 Priory Road shot and survived. Now, he added a new dimension. On the sunny afternoon of August 19th, 1987, it was market day in Hungerford and Ryan went to Saverneck forest - a place he would often go to shoot his gun and sneak up on unsuspecting. "It was just routine. People were sheltering in doorways and I pulled up and asked what was going on. She shouted at him, saying, Is that you making that noise? Fifteen vehicles were taken away for forensic examination. The phone lines were inundated with people trying to call police - journalists were taking up many of the lines - and the police radio system, which only had three channels, was similarly overloaded. "She'd just say she'd fallen over or something. "I effectively put myself on duty and thought because of my local knowledge I could show the armed response team the back routes around the town. "I didnt know by doing that, by asking him to come home, I was just leading them both into danger.". The Hoddle Street massacre was committed by a former soldier who wore combat fatigues. Meanwhile, a police officer had noticed Godfreys empty car with open doors and had gone to investigate. His wife and children had been in the car but were unhurt. Find out how you can get the latest news from BerkshireLive delivered straight to your inbox. But we've stuck by each other.". Ryan was a shy child with a keen interest in the military. 1 - Roland Mason Kahn died later of his wounds. He returned to South View to find bodies on the ground and was asked by police to identify them. He needed numerous operations and still suffers, both physically and mentally. Trevor Wainwright, Hungerfords usual bobby on the beat, was on a day off. "And then I remembered the name. Ryan had holed himself up in a second-floor classroom and was shooting through the window at both police and press helicopters. Ryan fired at them and Victor died instantly, whilst Myrtle died later in hospital. This powerful mix of emotions is often later expressed in an inappropriately violent response. This documentary examines Ryan's childhood, his acquisition of guns, and the killings. He had what appeared to be a normal upbringing, although he was perhaps overindulged by his mother. He told people he had served in the Second Parachute Regiment of the British armed forces, that he was getting married, and that he owned a gun shop. People came to buy goods, eat in the restaurants and stay at the inns. "Perhaps he killed her in panic when she attempted to run away.". AETNUK All Rights Reserved. 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