PostSubject: An extract from the Evening Times - The Kay Street Siege - 15 July 1969 Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:54 pm An extract from the Evening Times - The Kay Street Siege - 15 July 1969 Five plain-clothes officers went to an attic flat in Kelvinbridge to interview James Griffiths, 34, in connection with the murder (Rachel Ross). They were unable to gain entry, and Griffiths, who was said to be pathologically afraid of prison, began shooting, injuring one policeman and firing at anyone who appeared in the street. Still shooting, he raced to a car in Great Western Road, and wounded a number of people. Retrieving a cartridge belt from the boot, he returned to the flat, where the siege continued. By now, the police had bulletproof shields, and had been joined by a marksman with a highpowered rifle. But just as they were preparing to use tear-gas, Griffiths escaped, commandeered a car at gunpoint, and took police on a three-mile pursuit to Possil. Griffiths ran into the Round Toll Bar, where he fired some more shots, asked for a drink, changed his mind, then made off in a stolen lorry, before ending up in a tenement flat in Springburn�s Kay Street. There, he fired into a children�s playground and exchanged gunfire with police, his bullets ricocheting wildly and forcing local people to cower on shop floors. It fell to Chief Superintendent Calum Finlayson and Detective Sergeant Ian Smith, both armed with revolvers, to end the siege. Finlayson later recalled: �It was a warm day and I was perspiring and excited but I was not afraid. �I knew that Griffiths had a rifle and sawn-off shotgun and I knew the devastating effect of the latter. �I said, �If he gets us on the stairhead he�ll blow our heads off�.� Finlayson opened the letterbox and could hear Griffiths shooting. Then he noticed the gunman�s shadow. Finlayson decided to fire and try to disarm him. He raised the revolver to the letter-box and took aim at the man�s shoulder. He fired, but then heard Griffiths shoot back at the door. The officers feared their bullet had missed, but it hadn�t � it had found its way from Griffiths� shoulder to his heart. It was the first time that a wanted man had been shot by Scottish police. In all, Griffiths had fired more than 100 shots, injuring 13 people. One, a newsvendor, died of his injuries. The following day�s coverage of the siege contrasted with the optimistic stories about the launch of Apollo 11, which was taking Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 22:20:18 +0000
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