The final moments of New Zealand-born UK police officer Matiu Ratana’s life before being shot dead in a holding cell have been released as a jury decides whether Louis de Zoysa is guilty of murder.
De Zoysa, 25, is accused of murdering Ratana, 54, at a police holding cell in Croydon, London, on September 25, 2020, while he was handcuffed following his arrest for a procession of drugs and ammunition.
CCTV footage shows de Zoysa being searched after he was found acting suspiciously in an area where there had been multiple burglaries.
The now 25-year-old was seen sitting in the holding cell in Croyden before two officers, one of which was Ratana, entered the room.
The ODT has chosen not to show the moment Ratana was shot.
De Zoysa allegedly fired four bullets with a gun believed to have been concealed under his armpit, two of which fatally hit Ratana.
In footage shown to the jury, Ratana can be seen falling to the ground. The prosecution alleges the third bullet hit the wall during a struggle with officers and a fourth hit de Zoysa himself.
Officers can be seen dragging Ratana out of the room in a bid to help save his life.
De Zoysa is now in a wheelchair as a result of the fatal incident and suffers from brain damage, communicating through a whiteboard.
The 25-year-old denies murdering Ratana, with the defence telling the trial yesterday that the defendant was suffering an autistic meltdown at the time of the shooting and “did not mean to or want to kill Sgt Ratana, or to cause him really serious harm”.
The jury was told the first shot hit Ratana which caused the fatal injury to his left lung and heart, the second shot hit him in the leg.
On the second day of the trial, ballistic expert Anthony Miller testified that the revolver could not have been accidentally fired by de Zoysa.
Miller said he dropped it on the ground and “struck it with a cloth-faced hammer” and “generally treated it roughly” to test if it was possible to set it off.
Jury members were then given the gun loaded with dummy bullets and allowed to fire it toward the ceiling.
Ratana had served with the Metropolitan Police for more than three decades after starting in 1991.
He was the first-ever officer to be killed inside a British police station.
The trial continues.
