'I was staring down the barrel of a gun': Brierley Hill man jailed for pointing replica air pistol at PC
“I believed at that moment I was going to die.”
Those are the words of a serving police officer describing the moment a Brierley Hill man pointed an imitation firearm straight at him.
Officers attended the home of Thomas McIntyre, 56, in Brierley Hill on July 5 last year, at around 8.10pm, when his wife and children reported him being in distress.
They were standing outside and feared he was going to harm himself and the property when PC Joshua Smith and his colleague attended and tried to help him.
But Wolverhampton Crown Court heard McIntyre, who was visibly distressed and had been drinking, reached for his imitation carbon-dioxide-powered air pistol and pointed it at them, then clicked the trigger.
The court was played bodycam footage of the encounter, with the two officers shouting at McIntyre and then tasering him - as they believed the gun was real and loaded.
Gus Walter, prosecuting, said: "When police called they found the defendant's wife and children at the front of the house and they said they feared for his safety.
"Inside, they did everything they could to help him, offering to take him to hospital as he was visibly upset, incoherent and plainly in distress.
“But the mood changed when he then reached down to pick up the gun and it made a click before the officers went into emergency mode, believing it to be real."
‘I felt I was staring down the barrel of a gun and I was going to die’
A victim personal statement read to the court from PC Smith said he had never experienced anything like it, and he told how in his career he always tried to treat people fairly and help them.
It said: "I felt I was staring down the barrel of a gun and I was going to die and never see my family, my wife, my friends ever again.
"I took a few days off but that was not enough and it has affected me to this day. I still have panic attacks and I don't think he had any idea of the full impact it has had."
The court heard McIntyre, of Moor Street, Brierley Hill, normally kept the pistol in the garden but had brought it in to repair it. Although it wasn't loaded there was a box of CO2 pellet ammunition next to it.
McIntyre had a history of mental illness and depression and also had 41 convictions for 116 offences, from theft to threatening police officers with a bat, but none since 2011.
Judge Simon Ward considered handing him a suspended sentence for possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
But he jailed him for 18 months because of the threat he had posed to the officers, his family and the property.