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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Luke O'Reilly and Josh Salisbury

Matt Ratana: Partner of officer shot dead by prisoner hiding gun sues Met Police

The wife of a police officer who was shot dead by a prisoner is suing the force, saying he could still be alive if a proper search was carried out.

Matt Ratana was murdered in the early hours of September 25 2020 by Louis de Zoysa, who opened fire with an antique revolver at Croydon custody suite in south London.

De Zoysa, who is autistic, had earlier been arrested and searched but officers failed to find the gun the 26-year-old had in an underarm holster, despite discovering bullets in his pocket.

On Thursday, the Mirror reported that his partner Su Bushby, 47, is suing Scotland Yard.

Louis De Zoysa murdered Sgt Matt Ratana in a shooting inside a Croydon police station (Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)

The Met Police confirmed that it had received the civil claim, adding that it remains “in dialogue with the claimant’s legal representative”.

“If it was an effective search the gun would have been found on de Zoysa and Matt would be alive now,” she told the paper.

“The shoddy and ­inadequate search by officers was a neglect of their duty and left Matt ­vulnerable. The number of failures that came out during the inquest has left me ­devastated.

“I have not been informed by anyone during this time that the actions of the Metropolitan Police may have ­contributed towards Matt’s death.”

Senior coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe, concluding an inquest into Sgt Ratana’s death in November, previously said: “There was a failure to carry out a safe, thorough and systematic search.”

In the custody van, de Zoysa was seen in footage wriggling and jerking, which according to expert evidence was him repositioning the firearm to his hands.

Sergeant Matt Ratana’s partner Su Bushby after the inquest into his death (PA Wire)

After arriving at Croydon’s Windmill Road custody centre, de Zoysa was allowed to walk without an officer gripping his arm, or handcuffs.

De Zoysa later managed to move his handcuffed arms from behind his back to fire at Sgt Ratana.

The New Zealand-born officer, 54, who had served in the Met Police for almost 30 years and was three months from retirement, was hit in the chest by the first of three shots discharged by de Zoysa within three seconds.

A second bullet struck him in the thigh before de Zoysa was wrestled to the ground by other officers, as a third round hit the cell wall.

Former tax office data analyst de Zoysa, who was living in a flat on a farm in Banstead, Surrey, discharged a fourth shot while on the cell floor, hitting an artery in his own neck and causing him brain damage.

He is serving a whole-life jail term for Sgt Ratana’s murder after a trial earlier this year, during which his legal team said he was suffering an autistic meltdown at the time of the shooting.

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