Southport knife rampage inquiry hears officer entered with baton after bystander warning 'You need a gun'

The Southport knife rampage inquiry heard that a police sergeant charged into the Hart Space dance studio armed only with a baton, despite a member of the public telling him that a firearm was needed. The testimony also showed it took the officer about ten minutes to reach the scene after officers were alerted to a boy with a knife who had stabbed several people and caused multiple casualties.

When Sgt Greg Gillespie was directed to go to the scene, body-worn camera footage showed him arriving on Hart Street at 11:56 a.m. and being flagged down by parents who were waiting to collect their children and did not know if their own were safe. Det Chief Inspector Jason Pye, the senior investigating officer, described how Gillespie stepped from his car and passed a child lying on the ground, appearing to assume the child was not breathing because bystanders were already attempting to help. He told the bystanders there was a fast paramedic behind him and urged them to wave down the first arriving paramedic.

Window cleaner Joel Verite, who carried a child from outside the building after Rudakubana dragged her back inside, used his T-shirt to stem the bleeding and later asked Gillespie to accompany him to the car park. At the Hart Space entrance, Gillespie updated the control room on the radio, saying: "We are going in to detain him." He attempted to draw his baton and protective equipment, but Verite blocked the move, telling him to pause. According to DCI Pye, the officer then asked, "Why? What has he got?" It was described as the first time Gillespie acknowledged the attacker might be armed. Verite had warned that the assailant had a knife and would require more than a baton. The inquiry heard that Gillespie then requested a Tasers-equipped officer join him as PC Luke Holden and PCSO Timothy Parry arrived on the scene.

With little delay, Gillespie and Holden moved toward the Hart Space with Parry left to guard the entrance. Six seconds after Holden and Parry reached the doorway, Gillespie and Holden entered at 11:57 a.m. The inquiry noted there was no significant pause for a complex plan; the officers went in quickly. Inside, they confronted Rudakubana on the landing, ordered him to drop the knife, and restrained him with help from Parry. The attack ended when Rudakubana dropped the weapon and was subdued.

A minicab driver, Gary Poland, later told police he had driven Rudakubana to the Hart Space, but then drove away without calling emergency services. He stopped only at 12:36 p.m., reporting that the boy had done everything and that he was shaken. In questioning, DCI Pye asked whether a bystander should have called 999 sooner once safety had been achieved. He replied that morally, a call would have been expected given the seriousness of the incident and the knowledge that he knew what was happening.

The inquiry also examined digital material accessed by Rudakubana in the hours preceding the attack. Investigators found he had opened a document labeled Kamikaze death poetry among other PDFs on a tablet, and had cleared his browser history prior to the incident. The titles recovered included items on global history and religion, such as Divinity and Experience—the religion of the Dinka—and works on Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, and Iraq, suggesting a broader reading pattern rather than a direct guide to violence. The panel stressed that the findings only illuminate his interests and do not explain the attack. The panel did not find direct evidence linking these materials to the plan or execution of the attack.

The inquiry, held at Liverpool Town Hall, is investigating why several agencies—police, the courts, the NHS and social services—had contact with Rudakubana but failed to identify the risk he posed. It will also consider whether the attack could or should have been prevented. Rudakubana had been in the care of mental health services for years before the atrocity but was formally discharged just six days before carrying it out. The inquiry continues to hear from witnesses and examine records to understand how risk was assessed and managed across services in the lead-up to the attack.