CCTV footage showing moments before custody sergeant was fatally shot released
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Chilling footage showing the moments before a Metropolitan Police officer was fatally shot inside a custody block has been released as the alleged killer’s trial continues.
CCTV footage showing the death of Sergeant Matt Ratana at Croydon custody centre was shown to the jury in full at Northampton Crown Court on Wednesday and Thursday.
Louis De Zoysa is accused of shooting Mr Ratana with an antique revolver that was concealed in a holster as he was being detained at the centre.
The footage released by the Met on Thursday has been cut down to eight minutes and 47 seconds and includes body-worn camera video showing De Zoysa being stopped and searched on London Road, Norbury, south London, by officers in the early hours of September 25 2020.
He is then put into the back of a police van and taken to the custody block in Windmill Road, Croydon.
It also shows the moments before Sgt Ratana, who was 54, was fatally shot just after 2am, before cutting to immediately after, with De Zoysa being wrestled to the floor and the gun kicked away.
De Zoysa, 25, who was still handcuffed when Sgt Ratana was shot, is said by the Crown to have deliberately fired the weapon without warning into the officer’s chest after likely concealing the revolver and a holster “under one of his armpits”.
The defendant was 23 when the shooting happened and was living in a flat at a farm in Banstead, Surrey, having bought the gun, which was legal to own due to its antique status, on the internet in June 2020.
The gun had not been discovered during the stop and search of De Zoysa before he was taken to the custody block.
De Zoysa, who appeared in the dock for the third day in a row on Thursday in a wheelchair and with his right arm in a sling, denies murder.
The trial continues.
