Police Federation

Awards nominee: Metropolitan 2

PS Stevie Bull

PS Stevie Bull

Hero cop tackles hospital gunman

Sgt Bull (who was a PC at the time) was at University College Hospital dealing with an unrelated case when she was alerted to a serious incident over the hospital speaker system. She immediately went to help the hospital’s security staff, two of whom ran past her.

She then heard a broken message on her police radio asking for police to attend the hospital. The officer followed the security staff when she saw worried looking hospital staff who pointed her towards another set of doors and were talking about a firearm. At the same time Sgt Bull heard mention of firearms units over the radio.

She was confronted by a man aiming what appeared to be a handgun at hospital staff – she could see that he was pulling the trigger of the gun, which was making a clicking noise. Sgt Bull placed herself between the gun-holding man and hospital staff to protect them and to take the man’s attention away from others. He refused to drop the gun and continued to threaten both Sgt Bull and the staff around her.

The offender was around three times the size of Sgt Bull and she knew she would have to use force to try to disarm him, or at least distract him until other officers arrived. Sgt Bull grabbed the gun and tried to pull it from him - he struggled with her and refused to let go. She then grabbed him and tried to pin his arms to his side. The struggle continued over to the doors where the man managed to free one of his arms and pushed Sgt Bull into the wall, injuring her head and causing her to fall to the floor. While stunned from the impact, Sgt Bull got up and immediately wrestled him to the floor where she was joined by security staff. Sgt Bull took the gun from his hands and threw it to safety, before placing the man in handcuffs and arresting him.

It later turned out that it was a starter gun, but Sgt Bull did not know this at the time. It took great courage to put herself in front of a firearm, putting the lives of others before her own.
