00:00:05
-The 19th of August 1987,
was a warm summer's day in the idyllic market town
of Hungerford in Berkshire,
00:00:12
a town that truly
encompasses the spirit of the British countryside. -A bright, calm, lovely
High Street, delicate shops,
00:00:21
the epitome
of a south of England, self-effacing
and yet rather proud town. -But this rural idyll was about
to become the setting for
00:00:32
one of the worst mass shootings
in British history, perpetrated by
one lone individual.
00:00:38
-When we look at spree killers, we look at what drives them,
it's often an underlying,
00:00:43
simmering resentment that is
often years in the making. It's a very unique form
of mass murder.
00:00:49
-A gun-obsessed local man
named Michael Ryan had taken to the streets,
firing randomly at strangers,
00:00:56
intent on killing anyone
who crossed his path. -People were deeply shocked at the way this chaotic violence
had erupted
00:01:05
into what were small-scale,
placid English lives. -By killing 16 people
in less than 2 hours,
00:01:12
Michael Ryan had undoubtedly become one of the world's
most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
00:01:39
It was a day
that shocked the nation. On Wednesday,
August the 19th, 1987, a lone gunman
took to the streets
00:01:47
of the countryside town
of Hungerford in Berkshire and terrorized the residents.
00:01:52
Armed with a collection
of deadly weapons, 27-year-old Michael Ryan began his rampage
in nearby Savernake Forest
00:02:00
by killing a young mother
in front of her children. By the time Ryan
turned the gun on himself
00:02:07
just before 7:00 p.m.,
14 people were dead. Two others would later die
in hospital.
00:02:13
-There couldn't have been
a more unlikely setting for the senseless carnage
of August the 19th, 1987.
00:02:19
To the townspeople
of Hungerford, "massacre" was the sort of word
used in history and fiction.
00:02:26
-30 years later,
in February 2017, a small number of the locals gathered to mark an event
of great importance,
00:02:34
but equally one
they'd all rather forget. -Let's pray, shall we? We meet in the presence of God.
00:02:42
We pray for all
who in bereavement, disability, or pain continue to suffer
the consequences of the tragedy.
00:02:50
We remember with thanksgiving
and sorrow those whose lives
have been taking away.
00:02:56
-Hungerford resident and
ex-policemen Trevor Wainwright lost his father
during the tragedy.
00:03:02
-The ceremony was really
a rededication of the memorial plaque for those that were killed
in the Hungerford Tragedy.
00:03:10
They put the plaque on the wall
of the local football club, and it remained there
for 20 years plus,
00:03:18
and I think the local council
thought that perhaps it wasn't the right place
to have that plaque,
00:03:25
and it might be more fitting to put it on the wall
of the war memorial. -The tragedy was an event
that affected the whole town,
00:03:33
including former mayor
of Hungerford Ron Tarry. -I think it's important
that we don't forget it.
00:03:39
It is part of our history
whether we like it or not, and I think that it's important
that we do remember it,
00:03:46
and that tragedy memorial
is a remembrance of what happened on that day. -Because of my involvement
with my own family
00:03:55
and being a local policeman, I've not wanted to forget
what happened, but in my position,
00:04:02
I like to think
I sometimes represent the town to discuss
these issues for them.
00:04:10
It's very difficult. People in the town have always
kept away from publicity, I suppose probably because
of what happened on the day
00:04:19
and the way the media
invaded the town back in 1987. -The story of
the Hungerford Tragedy
00:04:27
begins almost 60 years ago. Michael Ryan was born
just 10 miles from Hungerford in Marlborough, Wiltshire,
on the 18th of May, 1960.
00:04:38
His 55-year-old father, Alfred, was 20 years senior
to Ryan's mother, Dorothy, who doted on their young son.
00:04:47
-Michael was a bit
of a mummy's boy. She really did pander to him and tended to insulate him quite
a lot from the outside world.
00:04:55
But I think in insulating him, she tended to isolate him
a little bit, as well, so he didn't really develop
the skills of social interaction
00:05:04
with his peers all that well. -Ryan was an only child
who struggled to fit in with the other kids at school.
00:05:12
-I think because he hadn't had
those relationships with siblings
that most children have,
00:05:17
he found it difficult
to relate to other people, so he didn't really make
any connections
00:05:22
with others at school, and I think he got
a bit of a reputation as being the odd one out,
the slightly strange kid.
00:05:28
-Aged 16, Ryan left
John O'Gaunt secondary school and began his working career
as a part-time handyman.
00:05:35
His mother continued to dote
on him, even as he grew older, reportedly buying him
everything he wanted,
00:05:42
including his first air rifle. ♪♪ He began a collection
of firearms, which he kept on proud display
in his room.
00:05:53
-The Freudians would say
that was a significant thing because of his own lack
of masculinity
00:05:59
and had to use a gun
to confirm his own masculinity. He lived in a fantasy world
of gun magazines,
00:06:07
and he used to wear
a strange kind of camouflage hat as though he was really Rambo.
00:06:13
Someone have speculated
that he was spoiled, some that he was
just overindulged,
00:06:19
but there is no doubt that he turned into
a tragic loner. -In 1985, 25-year-old Ryan
lost his father to cancer
00:06:30
and became even more withdrawn
from the society around him. He immersed himself
in his passion for guns,
00:06:37
spending more and more time
at the firing range. -Often when we look
at spree killers,
00:06:43
we look at what drives them. It's often a underlying,
simmering resentment that is often years
in the making,
00:06:51
and because they don't have
those social connections with other people, they simmer away, and they just
get worse and worse,
00:06:57
and they spend a lot of time
on their own ruminating and planning. -On the 19th of August, 1987,
the 27-year-old was unemployed
00:07:07
and still living at home
with his mother. The frustration simmering
inside Michael Ryan
00:07:12
was about to boil over. -No one can say whether
he got out of bed that morning and decided, "I think I'm gonna
shoot 16 people today,"
00:07:23
though there could be no doubt
that he took out two semi-automatic rifles
and a Beretta handgun
00:07:29
and by 12:30,
had killed his first victim. -Ryan had loaded his car
with guns and driven out
to Savernake Forest,
00:07:36
7 miles west of Hungerford. 35-year-old Susan Godfrey was picnicking there
with her two young children.
00:07:44
-Ryan approached Susan Godfrey
and her two children, instructed her at gunpoint to
put her children into the car,
00:07:51
then took her into the bushes
in the forest and shot her
13 times in the back. -Ryan had callously
and brutally committed
00:07:59
his first murder. -Indeed, it was her children who subsequently
first raised the alarm
00:08:06
when they told a passerby, "A man in black
has shot our mummy." -Mrs. Myra Rose
told for the first time
00:08:15
how she was asked for help
by two young children who had just seen
their mother shot dead.
00:08:19
-And she said,
"A man in black shot my mummy." I don't think they realized
what death was.
00:08:27
-But Ryan wasn't done
for the day. Susan Godfrey
was his first victim, but would not be his last.
00:08:36
-He set off down the A4
towards Hungerford, stopped at the petrol station
to fill up his car,
00:08:41
waited for another car to leave, and then tried to kill
the lady behind the counter.
00:08:47
-From the forecourt,
Ryan opened fire through the glass at the cashier
as she ducked for cover.
00:08:52
When he entered the shop
to finish the job, his gun jammed, and he fled. The fortunate woman
immediately dialed 999
00:08:59
and alerted the police. Ryan got back into his car and
continued on with his journey.
00:09:05
His day of murder
and destruction had begun, but he was nowhere near finished as he headed directly towards
his hometown of Hungerford.
00:09:13
At around 12:45, Ryan arrived
home to number 4 South View. -He got there about quarter
to 1
00:09:21
to load up the rest
of his collection of guns into the back of his car. He duly did so,
and then the car,
00:09:28
for whatever reason,
failed to start. Ryan was so furious,
he shot the car five times.
00:09:38
He then killed his dog
for reasons, again, no one can explain, set fire to the house,
00:09:46
and he killed two neighbors who happened to be
in their back garden. -Ryan's next door neighbors
Roland and Sheila Mason
00:09:53
were both killed instantly. With his house in flames,
27-year-old Ryan took three guns from his car --
a Beretta 9 mm pistol,
00:10:03
an M1 carbine assault rifle,
and an AK-47 machine gun. He then headed east on foot.
00:10:10
-He took two semi-automatics
and a handgun with him and started to walk towards
Hungerford Common,
00:10:17
then began what you could
describe as almost a spree. -Ryan shot and injured two more
people at the end of South View,
00:10:26
one of them a 14-year-old girl. He seemed intent on causing
mayhem on the streets
00:10:31
of the small rural town. -We will probably never know
what Michael Ryan's intentions
00:10:36
were when he left
the house on the day that he carried out
these killings. I think when we look at some of
his behavior around it, though,
00:10:45
we can perhaps speculate
that he was suffering from some kind
of mental illness.
00:10:51
Some of the things, for me,
that would support that would be how close together
these killings were.
00:10:57
When killings are further apart, when there's time
in between them, the person is thinking about it.
00:11:03
The person is deciding
to do it again, but when it's in a continuous
spree like this,
00:11:08
there's less of that
decision making going on and psychosis or schizophrenia
do come into the picture.
00:11:14
-One of the injured women
who Ryan had shot at through her living room window
had managed to dial 999.
00:11:20
Reports of the shootings
had even filtered through to newsrooms across the country.
00:11:25
-I was a general news reporter
in the news room at the "Times" on the eastern side of London,
00:11:32
and the news came in... Even in those days,
news got around very quickly... that there had been
a major shooting incident
00:11:39
in this small Berkshire
country town of Hungerford, and I was sent by the office
from London to Hungerford,
00:11:46
which is about
between 80 and 90 miles, and I was dispatched
I think probably some time
00:11:53
after 1:00
and I just shot down the M4. -News had also reached the mayor
of Hungerford, Ron Tarry,
00:12:01
who was at a meeting
in a nearby village. -I was in the Lambourn area,
and I had the car radio on
00:12:07
when I heard there had been
a shooting in Hungerford, a number of people
had been killed.
00:12:13
My first thought was, "There are
a number of Hungerfords. There's one down in Hampshire,
and it's probably not ours,"
00:12:17
and then it said, "Hungerford is a small
market town in Berkshire." Suddenly, the shock came in.
00:12:23
It was -- it was my Hungerford,
if I like to call it that. How can it happen in a place
like Hungerford?
00:12:30
-At that point, I had
an antique store in Hungerford, and so I knew the town
really very well.
00:12:36
I used to go there every week
without fail, Saturday and Sunday. It was very comfortable and warm
and an enjoyable place to be,
00:12:46
which makes the juxtaposition
with Ryan all the more dramatic because we're not talking about
00:12:54
the mean streets of
Chicago here. We're not talking about
East Los Angeles. We're talking about Hungerford,
00:13:01
a delightful,
charming English county town with no real worries and equally
no history of violence.
00:13:13
-Ryan's spree continued. On a footpath that ran
between South View and Hungerford Common,
00:13:19
he encountered a family
walking the opposite way. While the rest of his family
ran away,
00:13:24
the 51-year-old father,
Kenneth Clements, put his hands up
as if to surrender, but Ryan cold-bloodedly shot him
in the chest,
00:13:32
killing him instantly. Kenneth had become
Ryan's fourth victim. -There doesn't seem to be
a pattern
00:13:39
to Michael Ryan's behavior
on the day that he carries out
these shootings. It appears to be indiscriminate.
00:13:45
They are every day people
doing every day, normal things, and I think Michael Ryan
never felt
00:13:51
that he was part of that normal,
part of that every day, so perhaps there is
a pattern underlying it
00:13:58
in that the people
that he's taking his rage out on are the people
that he wants to be like.
00:14:04
-Another Hungerford resident, police officer
Trevor Wainwright, was out of town enjoying a day
off, when he heard the news.
00:14:12
-On the 19th of August,
I can remember very clearly it was a beautiful
hot summer's day.
00:14:18
I heard that there'd been
a shooting or a hold-up at the filling station
at the Savernake.
00:14:25
-Because the reports
from the petrol station were coming from the neighboring
county of Wiltshire,
00:14:31
Trevor didn't draw
any association to his own patch in Hungerford until he received
a distressing call from home.
00:14:38
-It was my wife saying,
"Trevor, you'd better get home. "Don't know what's happening,
00:14:43
but there's gunfire
going across our garden." So I thought,
"Mm, what's all that about?
00:14:48
Could it be connected
with this Savernake thing?" You know, I didn't know,
but obviously,
00:14:53
I'd like to get back
to Hungerford. -As Trevor raced home,
the true severity of the situation
was revealed to him.
00:15:00
-As I drove
across Hungerford Common, I could see,
on the edge of the town, a couple of houses on fire.
00:15:08
You know, you could see
the smoke, and I could see,
in a clump of trees, there was a group of people
shouting in the trees.
00:15:14
So I pulled up, and I knew
a couple of the people, and I said, "What's going on?"
00:15:18
And they said, "Oh, it's a bloke
gone mad with a gun." And I just didn't know
what to think, you know?
00:15:23
And you could smell the cordite
from the weapon in the air, which I've never experienced
that before,
00:15:29
not like that, you know? Just you could hear the sound
of a gun going off, but I think the smoke
and the fire from the house
00:15:36
was the thing
that was quite frightening. -By now, police were beginning
to arrive in Hungerford,
00:15:43
still unaware of the scale
of the ongoing devastation. Trevor's colleague,
41-year-old Roger Brereton,
00:15:51
was the first constable
on the scene at South View. -Roger Brereton
was a lovely lad.
00:15:57
He was a local lad, I think, come from Wantage way,
originally. He came to Hungerford as a PC.
00:16:05
We used to go out, crew a car
together on many occasions, going round the rural area.
00:16:11
He was always a laugh
and a joke. He was good police officer. He was out in the Newbury area,
and the call came up
00:16:18
there was a shooting
in Hungerford, and bravely, he said,
"I'm on my way." -But by now, Ryan had
turned back towards his home
00:16:26
and spotted Roger Brereton
in his police car as he arrived. -He just went to do his job
and drove up into South View,
00:16:36
and, tragically, he was shot whilst he was in the car,
several times, and he didn't stand a chance.
00:16:45
♪♪ -Ryan fires 23 rounds
at Brereton in his police car, hitting him four times. He was unarmed.
00:16:58
He was doing no more
than responding to a call that there were reports
of gunfire.
00:17:03
How could he possibly
have expected to encounter a man who would
shoot at him 23 times?
00:17:10
-It could've been anyone,
you know, but, you know,
it was pretty tough it was him.
00:17:17
-PC Roger Brereton had become
Ryan's fifth victim of the day. -I mean, nowadays,
you know, we're used --
00:17:25
This is an age
of terrorist attacks. They'd be armed to the teeth,
the people who were --
00:17:30
But they were just policeman. They didn't carry sidearms.
They didn't have rifles.
00:17:34
So if Michael Ryan had wanted,
he could've gone due west, and he could've gone into
Hungerford High Street
00:17:40
and he could've got up and down
the High Street shooting people left, right, and center,
and no one could've stopped him
00:17:45
'cause there was no policemen
with any weapon. -Town Mayor Ron Tarry
was desperately trying
00:17:52
to return to his home and find
out if his family was safe, but the increased number of
police had made that difficult.
00:18:00
-Well, I drove to Hungerford.
Everything was closed off. The police were on every entry
into Hungerford,
00:18:05
and there was no way
I could get into Hungerford. My wife was here, and my
daughter and grandson were here,
00:18:13
but I went just out of town
to a farm manager that I knew and was able to ring
and speak to my wife here,
00:18:21
be assured that
they were all okay, and that was the first concern, but I couldn't get
into Hungerford for some time.
00:18:27
-With Hungerford in lockdown, Ryan continued with
his bloody spree on South View,
00:18:33
shooting at passing cars. First he fired at a mother
and her daughter, who managed to escape
by driving away.
00:18:40
Then he shot and killed
driver George White and another neighbor,
84-year-old Abdul Khan,
00:18:46
who was in the back garden
of his home on Fairview Road. -He shoots at a neighbor.
He shoots at an ambulance
00:18:53
which has also responded
to the concept of shots fired. The man disassembling, disintegrating before
your very eyes,
00:19:01
falling apart, shooting
at people entirely at random, and then, of all
remarkable coincidences,
00:19:09
his mother drives into
South View. -Ryan's mother, Dorothy, arrived to a scene
of complete devastation.
00:19:18
-It's almost impossible
to imagine what she must have thought. Her house is on fire.
00:19:23
There are bodies in the road. Her neighbors are dead, and there's her son carrying
two rifles and a handgun,
00:19:29
clearly having done something
absolutely terrifying. His mother gets out of the car,
00:19:36
puts her hands up
and pleads with him. Ryan shoots her, kills her. -It could be theorized that
he accidentally shot his mother.
00:19:48
I mean, if he was experiencing
some kind of psychosis, some kind
of mental health condition
00:19:53
where he wasn't in control
of his actions, he could well have just been
targeting people randomly,
00:19:59
people who appeared
in his line of his sight, and his mother happened
to be one of those people.
00:20:04
-As this scene of absolute
tragedy and terror continued to unfold on South View,
Trevor Wainwright
00:20:11
reported for duty
at Hungerford Police Station. -It was quite bedlam,
to be honest.
00:20:17
In those days, we only had
two phone lines into the police station,
and there was a lot of movement.
00:20:23
The first thing I wanted to know
is who this was that was shooting people
because, you know,
00:20:29
I'd been at Hungerford
as a bobby 15 years. I knew all the kids.
I played football with them.
00:20:33
I took them for football,
and I had a wonderful relationship
with people in the town,
00:20:39
and this name Michael Ryan
came out, and it didn't mean
anything to me. I thought, "Well,
who the hell is that?"
00:20:45
-At 1:30 p.m., the specially
trained Tactical Firearms Unit were brought in to support
the local police.
00:20:52
-Yeah, the adrenaline
was running through me, and I knew what
I wanted to do was
00:20:57
to accompany the armed police
when they arrived because I was the local bobby,
you know, and I thought,
00:21:04
"Well, they didn't know
where he was." You know, the location of him
at that time, and so I said,
00:21:10
"Well, I'll go down
to the news agents' and get local maps,
Ordnance Survey maps.
00:21:15
I drove my car down
into the High Street, and I was amazed to see
a row of ambulances,
00:21:23
a PC who stopped the traffic
and a couple of fire engines, more police cars, and there was people shouting
in shop doorways.
00:21:33
I just went straight into
the news agents'. I said, "Let me have
your street maps.
00:21:37
Let me have your --
all the map's you've got." So I was able to get some,
grab them,
00:21:42
drove back
to the police station, and by that time, there was
lots of senior police officers
00:21:49
coming in and armed response
vehicles that were coming in. -We knew something
pretty serious was going on,
00:21:55
but we didn't really know
the scale of it. The telephone system
was overwhelmed.
00:21:59
I think it was very difficult
for the police to find out where he was
and what he'd done.
00:22:03
-Even with the help of the maps, the police were struggling
to locate Ryan. -At that time,
there was conflicting reports
00:22:11
as to his exact location because the communication
problem with the phones... Calls were coming in saying
he was in one street,
00:22:19
but, of course, he'd moved on
by the time that call had been processed,
so nobody knew where he was,
00:22:25
but all the time
he was shooting people as he went round the streets. -Ryan was on the move.
00:22:32
After wounding another of
his neighbors on Clarks Gardens, he'd headed back across
Hungerford Common,
00:22:38
where he murdered
Francis Butler, a young father
who was walking his dog. His 10th victim of the day
was taxi driver Marcus Barnard,
00:22:47
whom he gunned down
on Bulpit Lane. But Ryan wasn't nearly finished. He was heading towards
00:22:53
the heavily populated
town center. On Priory Avenue, he'd shot
and injured two more people
00:22:59
before heading north
towards Fairview Road. -As he walked along,
he was shooting
00:23:05
at pretty much anyone that
he came across. Some he killed. Some he simply injured.
00:23:10
-Local police officer
Trevor Wainwright was in the midst of working
to bring Ryan's killing spree
00:23:16
to an end when tragedy struck
devastatingly close to home. -I got called into
the sergeant's office,
00:23:23
and he said to me, "Trevor, I don't know
how to tell you this." I said, "What?" He said, um,
00:23:31
he said, "Your dad's been shot and he's dead." -Trevor's parents,
Douglas and Kathleen Wainwright,
00:23:38
were in their car
just where Fairview Road meets Priory Avenue,
unaware of the danger
00:23:43
that awaited them
as they drove to see their son. -I didn't even
think about my mum and dad
00:23:49
coming to Hungerford that day. They lived in Kent,
and they traveled, what, 120 miles that day,
00:23:56
and they've driven 300 yards
from my house, and they drove
straight into Michael Ryan,
00:24:00
who shoots into the car,
and he shot my dad in the head, and he died instantly. -Kathleen was able to
pull herself out of the car,
00:24:10
where she hid from Ryan
until a local resident bravely took her
into the safety of their home.
00:24:16
-The sergeant told me
my dad had died. At that point, he said,
"Your mum's also been shot,
00:24:22
"but she's been taken
to hospital. We're gonna get you
to the hospital," so it was...
00:24:27
Really, that was me out of doing
any more work at Hungerford. -By now,
more and more journalists
00:24:33
were arriving
at the police cordons, desperate to find out exactly
what was going on in the town.
00:24:40
-You couldn't get into
the town center, but you could see there was
a police helicopter overhead,
00:24:44
and there was smoke
in the distance. Well, I checked in
with the office, and they told me there
had been multiple shootings,
00:24:51
and they knew even then that it was in this street
called South View, which was on the eastern
side of the town,
00:24:57
and they wanted me, obviously,
to get there as soon as I could. But you couldn't get
within half a mile of it.
00:25:02
I mean,
there was no way on Earth you could get anywhere
near it at that time. -It soon became apparent
to the press
00:25:09
that something horrifying
was happening within the town, but no one was really sure
just what was going on.
00:25:16
-Even the police didn't know
what had happened. The whole incident
consisted of three locations.
00:25:21
10 miles away
in Savernake Forest, it all began when he shot
that poor woman who was picnicking
with her children.
00:25:29
Then he drove down the A4
to Froxfield where the service area was, and he tried to shoot
the woman on the till.
00:25:35
And then he came into
Hungerford, and gradually, these reports of
these different things came in,
00:25:39
and it was immensely confusing. And if it was confusing
for the police, it was doubly confusing
for journalists
00:25:45
who were trying to put together
a picture of what had happened. -Gradually,
Mike and his fellow journalists
00:25:49
began to build a bigger picture. -It was
starting to become clear that there was a man
on the loose
00:25:57
with what looked
like automatic weapons who had killed
more than one person. There were perhaps two, three,
four, even five people dead.
00:26:05
He was just shooting, shooting, shooting with a fully automatic
assault rifle. So, you know, piecing that
together for the police,
00:26:14
never mind for journalists,
was a very difficult task to do. -But the media
and the police had no idea
00:26:22
of just how much
the body count was rising. Van driver Eric Vardy became
Ryan's 12th victim of the day
00:26:29
when he was shot on the junction of Priory Avenue
and Tarrants Hill. The gunman then crossed through
Orchard Park Close,
00:26:37
killing 22-year-old Sandra Hill
in her passing car. After heading onto Priory Road,
Ryan forced his way into a house
00:26:45
and killed both Victor Gibbs
and his wife Myrtle, bringing his tally
of victims to 15.
00:26:53
-Most spree killers feel
kind of quite hard done by. They feel that they are victims.
00:26:58
They feel that other people have been out to get them
for their entire lives, and they often begin
fantasizing about one day
00:27:06
getting their revenge
on these people. -Ryan continued south
on Priory Road, now heading away
from the town center
00:27:15
and towards his old school,
John O'Gaunt. He shot at a family who were
driving by in their car.
00:27:21
34-year-old father Ian Playle
was hit in the neck and died. In less than 90 minutes,
Ryan had killed 16 people.
00:27:31
-Finally, Ryan,
I think symbolically, returns to his old school, the John O'Gaunt
Community College,
00:27:39
and he locks himself in. By this time, the police have
managed to assemble a reaction,
00:27:46
and he begins to negotiate. -For 5 hours,
the police tried convincing Ryan to give himself up.
00:27:55
-He seems incredibly concerned
about his mother. That seems to be what is
at the forefront of his mind,
00:28:00
what he's most concerned with. And you could interpret that
as some kind of remorse,
00:28:06
but actually, I think it's more
indicative of his enmeshment with his mother and his
dependence upon his mother,
00:28:12
'cause they had
quite an intense relationship. He really was quite
a mummy's boy,
00:28:18
and I think that the thought
that he had killed her and taken her out of
the equation was something
00:28:23
that he was having
quite a lot of trouble with. -Very near the end of the events
at Hungerford that day,
00:28:31
he said to
the police negotiators, "Hungerford must be
a bit of a mess by now. I wish I'd stayed in bed."
00:28:39
And that, in a way,
encapsulates the tragedy of him. -Shortly before 7:00 p.m., police heard a single shot
emerge from the school.
00:28:49
-The standoff ends with Ryan
killing himself. The psychotic break is complete. He doesn't do anything dramatic.
00:28:58
He simply shoots himself
with one of his own rifles. -Sergeant Paul Brightwell
of the Tactical Firearms Unit
00:29:05
began a shouted conversation
with him. -On many occasions,
he seemed to me just to be on the verge
of coming out.
00:29:12
It wasn't until he said
about the fact that he'd got one round of ammunition left,
00:29:20
and so I said, "Well,
why have you kept that one?" And he said, "It's obvious." -In a way, it was
a sort of something of relief
00:29:27
that it was over then. You know, he couldn't shoot
anyone else, and in a way, it sort of has brought
some closure in my mind.
00:29:35
It didn't bring any closure to the events
that happened subsequently, but it did
bring closure that event.
00:29:41
He couldn't shoot any more out,
and no more lives would be lost. -For the local residents,
including Trevor Wainwright,
00:29:48
the news of Ryan's suicide
brought mixed feelings. -One of
the strangest things for me
00:29:54
was that the remorse had gone,
you know? The fact that
he'd killed himself and he was no longer alive,
the hatred...
00:30:04
You know, if he'd have been
caught and arrested, I would've hated him so much,
and I would've been
00:30:09
at every court hearing
to see him get sentenced. But the fact
that he killed himself,
00:30:15
I didn't have that hatred. -In the wake of the tragedy,
the news began to spread
00:30:20
of the true loss of life
in Hungerford. -In the evening, we were told
there'd be a briefing
00:30:26
by the head
of Thames Valley Police, and it was about 10 past 8:00
in the evening,
00:30:31
and there were
about 20 of us there. We were waiting
just at the corner of this lane,
00:30:35
I remember, and this
senior officer came down. And remember, we all thought -- You know, we knew that more
than one person was dead.
00:30:41
It could be three, four,
five, even six. It was an enormous shock. No one had any idea of the scale
of it until that moment,
00:30:48
and that was the first time
we had a death toll, an accurate casualty figure. -16 people were dead.
00:30:56
As the news became public,
the face of the killer, Michael Ryan,
began to circulate.
00:31:03
-When I saw the picture of Ryan
in the papers myself, I knew it was the guy
I used to see
00:31:08
walking his dogs
on Hungerford Common in his combat jacket
and his hat. But that wasn't anything
alarming to me
00:31:17
because a lot of people wear
those type of coats, you know, especially around this area.
00:31:23
He was a guy that was quite
insignificant, to be honest. He was quite polite. When I saw him on the Common
with his dogs,
00:31:31
we'd say good morning. The dogs would sniff each other,
and he'd walk off. -I'd never really met him.
I knew of him.
00:31:39
I mean, he lived locally,
and I saw Michael Ryan spectating at football matches
but didn't ever seem to mingle.
00:31:45
I didn't really know him at all. In fact, when I talked
to people since, I don't think anybody
really knew him.
00:31:52
-When we look at people
like Michael Ryan, people who carry out
spree killings, the word "loner" often comes up.
00:31:59
They tend to be very much
kind of on their own, these lone wolves, and that's
quite important for me
00:32:05
because I think when we have
other people around us, they act as a bit of a check
on our behavior,
00:32:10
a kind of surveillance. And when we say things that are
a bit out of order, you know,
00:32:16
our friends and our peers
will often pull us up on that. When we don't have
those connections,
00:32:22
those feelings tend to escalate, and we tend to ruminate
over feelings for quite a while.
00:32:27
And without that filter, I think people like Michael Ryan
can escalate quite quickly.
00:32:33
-In the immediate aftermath, Hungerford proved itself
to be a true community, pulling together to support
those affected the most.
00:32:42
-Meanwhile, the mayor launched
an appeal for a fund for the survivors
and relatives of the victims
00:32:47
from the steps of the town hall. -The appeal is to be called
the Hungerford Tragedy Fund.
00:32:54
The community reaction
was marvelous. It was remarkable. I mean, people said,
"What can I do?
00:32:59
It's our problem.
What can we do to help?" -The vicar held a church service
the first thing
00:33:05
the next morning,
which I went to. I think it was
8:00 in the morning. And he was very active
in bringing people together.
00:33:11
It was a community town. I mean, it was a sort of place
where everybody knew everybody,
00:33:16
and they did rally round. ♪♪ -In all that carnage, it seemed almost a cruel irony
00:33:26
to proclaim God's love. Yet by prayer and word and deed, so many people were
the instruments of God's love.
00:33:41
-That was the great thing, the community spirit
of the town, you know, and I think
that's remained ever since.
00:33:50
-After Michael Ryan's
killing spree at Hungerford on August the 19th, 1987, the whole world
was coming to terms
00:33:58
with the events of the day, none more so than the residents
of the town itself, where 16 people had died
00:34:04
and a further 17
had been left injured. -Well, it was silent. My mother was alive then,
00:34:11
and she lived just off
Priory Avenue, not far from where
the shooting take place,
00:34:15
and I walked up there
in the evening to ensure she was okay, and there wasn't a soul about.
00:34:23
People were just shocked
and just remained at home. Somebody told me after,
there was a report
00:34:28
that people in Hungerford
were cheering and singing because they'd heard that
Michael Ryan had been killed,
00:34:32
but it was absolute nonsense. There was...
People were absolutely shocked and couldn't believe
what had happened,
00:34:37
and nor could I,
for that matter. -Everyone wanted to know more
about the mysterious gunman,
00:34:42
and the media put
a lot of unwanted attention on the small-market town. -It became quite hard
to talk to people
00:34:49
because there were
so many journalists there, as you can imagine. People got sick of it.
00:34:55
Some of the tabloids would've
had teams of five or six, so you got 40 or 50 journalists
crawling over the place,
00:35:01
and it can't be avoided. It's just part of life,
but people didn't like it. -One news report in particular
left Trevor Wainwright
00:35:09
completely stunned. -Probably the thing
that -- mm -- upset me really badly was the press coverage.
00:35:20
The headlines were, "PC Signed
Father's Own Death Warrant." -The headline in question
00:35:27
referred to
the unfortunate coincidence that Trevor had been the officer
who helped approve
00:35:32
Michael Ryan's
gun license renewal just weeks before the bloodbath. -I read that, and I just
couldn't believe that,
00:35:42
and it meant to me that if
I signed my dad's death warrant, then I signed the death warrants
of all the other people
00:35:48
that got shot. And, to me, that was so unfair because Ryan was
a member of a gun club.
00:35:57
He had several weapons,
and each time you have a weapon, you have to be vetted or have the license
amended and approved.
00:36:06
If he wasn't a suitable person, I'd be the person able
to say that, but because he had no record,
and nobody really knew him,
00:36:13
although he was a local lad,
he was a loner. That doesn't prevent you from
having a firearm certificate.
00:36:21
And, you know, clearly,
there was no reason for him not to have
a firearm certificate.
00:36:26
-Trevor was badly affected
by the allegations and wanted
to lay low for a while.
00:36:32
-I was so upset that I didn't
want to go to hospital to see my mum because she was
in a ward with the other people
00:36:39
that had been shot,
and I couldn't face them. They obviously saw the paper
in hospital.
00:36:47
My mum was told that, you know,
I was very upset, and she phoned me up
from hospital, and she said,
00:36:54
"Trevor, get your ass in here. The people want you." -The Hungerford Tragedy would,
in fact, lead to calls
00:37:05
to make drastic changes
to the firearm laws in the U.K. -As a direct result
of the Hungerford Massacre,
00:37:11
the Home Secretary aired
his new gun law proposals today. If Parliament agrees, then semi-automatic rifles
like the AK-47,
00:37:19
similar to Michael Ryan's
murder weapon, will be banned. -What's the worst invention
of the 20th century?
00:37:24
It's the AK-47 because it has
nine moving parts, it can be mended
in a village workshop,
00:37:31
and it enables a boy of 10
to kill 30 men. An AK-47 is a terrible weapon,
and Ryan had one,
00:37:38
and he also had an M1 carbine,
which was American, so he had these assault rifles
which can, you know,
00:37:44
go through a wall 1/2
a mile away. [ Gunshots ] -So many people thought, "Something has got
to be done about this.
00:37:53
"Why on Earth does a man
need these guns? And why on Earth is is necessary
to license them?"
00:38:00
-What the government decided
to do very quickly, in short order... I think Douglas Hurd
was the Home Secretary...
00:38:06
they commissioned a report
about this from the head of Thames Valley Police,
which came in quite quickly,
00:38:11
and as a result of it,
they amended the Firearms Act. You could not any longer be
in possession
00:38:16
of a fully automatic
assault weapon, and that was done
really quite quickly. [ Applause ]
00:38:22
-The Home Secretary told
senior officers in Torquay that the fearful events
of Hungerford had added impetus
00:38:27
to plans to tighten
firearms legislation. -I have concluded that there
can be no justification
00:38:34
for high-powered,
self-loading rifles of the type used by Michael Ryan to be held
my private individuals.
00:38:42
-The Firearms Amendment Act
passed in 1988, banned the ownership of
semi-automatic centerfire rifles
00:38:51
and restricted the use
of shotguns with a capacity of more
than three cartridges
00:38:56
in the hope that such a tragedy
would never be repeated. ♪♪ For the people of Hungerford,
it was little consolation.
00:39:07
The hurt remains in the hearts
of those who remember the 19th of August, 1987,
so vividly.
00:39:15
♪♪ -The scars linger now,
30 years on, because how could they not? Entirely random neighbors
were killed, people you knew,
00:39:31
people your children
had been at school with, someone you might have seen
every day at church.
00:39:35
It was a community, and there's no way a community
could've suffered such a trauma
00:39:44
without having been
dreadfully affected. -The press asked me,
"When was the last murder
00:39:50
in Hungerford, do you think?"
and there were two policemen murdered in Hungerford in 1876,
and I said,
00:39:57
"Well, I think 111 years ago.
I don't know anyone since then." It's not the sort of thing
you would expect to hear
00:40:03
in a place like Hungerford. -I think the community
has got stronger as a result of what's happened,
and as time goes on,
00:40:12
you know, the anger thing
fades out a little bit, but it will always be there. -To help support his family,
Trevor's mother moved
00:40:21
to Hungerford after the attacks
to be closer to her son. -I was so pleased for her,
you know,
00:40:27
because she was brave enough
to come here, you know, where other people
were moving out.
00:40:32
My mum lived there for another
15 years before she died, and at her funeral, the church was packed
with local townspeople,
00:40:41
and it was unbelievable, really,
the love they gave to her. -Michael Ryan's actions on that
fateful day in August 1987,
00:40:50
left the entire nation
in complete shock. The pointless
and random killings left many people asking, "Why?"
00:40:59
-One of the mysteries
of Michael Ryan is that we will never know. He killed himself at the end
of the events
00:41:08
and killed his mother
as part of the killings. There was no one else.
His father had long since dead.
00:41:15
There were no siblings. There was no other close
related family. He was, in the end,
just this rather isolated,
00:41:23
way-faced young man
with a fascination with guns. -I think Michael Ryan
certainly did some evil things.
00:41:31
Whether he consciously chose
to do what he did or whether he felt compelled
to act in that way
00:41:37
because of some kind
of psychosis. Perhaps we'll never know. -But the people of Hungerford
refuse to be defined
00:41:44
by a day
that caused so much pain and suffering
in such a short space of time. -I think it strengthened
the community spirit.
00:41:52
It made Hungerford better known
for all the wrong reasons. Hungerford was more than that.
That was just one dreadful day.
00:41:59
But there's been hundreds
of years of history when that wasn't Hungerford. So we don't think of
Michael Ryan
00:42:06
and that day in August 1987, as being what Hungerford
is about. -Ryan acted without reason
and entirely at random.
00:42:16
In less than 2 hours,
he murdered 16 people, including a policeman
and even his own mother.
00:42:23
We may never know
why he did what he did, but what we can say for certain is that the small community
living in Hungerford
00:42:31
refused to be beaten
by his cruelty or haunted by the nightmare of Michael Ryan's
deranged killing spree.
00:42:39
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪