Firearms officer ‘had no choice’ but to shoot man

A firearms officer who fatally shot a man who was brandishing a knife in a police station car park said he was left with “no choice” after non-lethal options to take him down failed, an inquest has heard.

Marius Ciolac, 35, was shot outside Ascot Drive police station in Derby on the morning of 7 October 2022.

The man, who can only be referred to as Officer A due to legal reasons, told the inquest jury at Derby Coroner’s Court on Monday that Mr Ciolac was “closing him down” and he had fired his carbine rifle after a stun grenade and a baton round were ineffective.

He said: “It was a complete last resort… I was left with no choice which was a tactical shot.”

The jury heard the armed officers told Mr Ciolac to “drop the knife” several times, but he did not follow their commands.

Officer A in his evidence, said he fired the shot with Mr Ciolac approaching and was “less than two metres away”.

The inquest heard Mr Ciolac, who was originally from Romania, was taken to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham with a gunshot wound to the lower abdomen, where he died at 11:25 GMT that day.

Derby and Derbyshire assistant coroner Sabyta Kaushal told the court the time from the arrival of firearms officers to the fatal shot was between 18 and 22 seconds.

She added Officer A did not turn on his bodycam during the incident, which the officer said was a “mistake”.

Officer A, who had been on routine patrol in the Normanton Road area of Derby at the time with his partner, referred to as Officer B, said he had been a firearms officer for nine months when Mr Ciolac died.

He told the jury he had responded to “10 to 15 spontaneous incidents” but added this was the first time he had fired his carbine rifle in a live operation.

Shortly after arriving, Officer A said he became concerned for the safety of four officers when he witnessed Mr Ciolac “walking towards the officers with a knife raised”.

“He potentially was about to do harm – I had to do something to mitigate that risk – he was closing the gap on these officers,” he said.

The court previously heard Mr Ciolac, a builder, had entered the car park and smashed the station’s windows and police cars with the blade before he ran towards a firearms officer and was fatally shot.

But Officer A said he was not told about of any of this beforehand, the potential language barrier or that he had sat down in the car park for a time before firearms officers arrived.

Ms Kaushal said: “It could be said there was quite a lot of information fed to you that was lacking?”

Officer A replied: “We did not have all the information, that’s correct.”

Speaking about the moment he faced Mr Ciolac, Officer A said: “As soon as I shouted ‘drop the knife’, he then turned and started to walk towards me.

“The goal was him to surrender the knife in the middle of the car park.

“I raised my weapon and aimed it at him and asked him to drop the knife again.”

The court heard Officer B, who was described as the more experienced firearms officer of the two, deployed a stun grenade and then a baton round to try to stop Mr Ciolac’s advance.

“He just walked through the stun grenade – there was no stopping from him,” Officer A told the court.

“I heard the pop of the baton gun but my assumption was that it missed… there was no flinch no reaction from someone being hit by one.”

Asked why he fired the shot that proved fatal, Officer A said: “He was closing me down at that point, I was back-pedalling.

“I knew that negotiation wasn’t working… both the baton gun and stun grenade had no effect.

“It was a complete last resort – we failed with the non-lethal option… I was left with no choice which was a tactical shot.

“I believed I would have been stabbed or seriously hurt.”

Ms Kaushal asked why Officer A did not aim for a less lethal part of the body.

“The reason we aim for the centre body mass is because it is the largest area… it is the most likely area to incapacitate a threat,” he said.

“Without hitting the centre, it increases the likelihood of missing.”

Officer A was also asked by the coroner why he did not put on his bodycam.

“It was a mistake – but the reason being there was so much going on and I had one hand on my pistol grip – three or four other things to do at the same time.”

The inquest continues.