Ten people remain in custody after a newlywed
police officer was dragged along by a vehicle before he died.
Pc Andrew Harper, 28, died following a “serious incident” at about 11.30pm on Thursday near the A4 Bath Road, between Reading and Newbury, at the village of Sulhamstead in Berkshire.
Thames Valley Police said 10 boys and men aged between 13 and 30 have been arrested on suspicion of murder and are in custody at various police stations in the force area.
Chief Constable John Campbell said Harper was at the scene with a fellow officer and was out of his police car when the incident occurred, adding: “What we do know is Andrew had been dragged along by a vehicle.”
He said the suspects were detained within about an hour of the incident and officers are working “hard and diligently to find out what happened”.
A post-mortem examination is taking place to establish the cause of Harper’s death.
John Apter, chair of the Police Federation of
England and Wales, has called the death of ten officers over the last decade “shocking”.
He told
BBC Radio 4’s Today: “Those figures are shocking for an unarmed force.
“For 10 officers to be killed at the hands of others over that period of time is truly shocking.”
Reacting to the recent serious injury of two officers in
London and Birmingham, as well as Harper’s death, Apter added: “Policing is dangerous and it’s unpredictable, and we accept that when we take up this role.
“[But] for all the officers that you hear about on the news, there are many others that you don’t hear about.
“There was one officer in North Wales who was very seriously injured, he nearly lost his life.”When questioned on why officers are being violently assaulted, Apter raised the issue of police cuts.
He said: “We can’t ignore the reality that there are almost 22,000 fewer police officers and many thousands fewer police staff than there were 10 years ago.
“That means in many parts of our communities, police officers are vulnerable, that’s the reality of it.”
Apter also thought societal attitudes to violence have changed and said: “I think society has become a much more violent place and for some, life is cheap.
“They think nothing of pulling out a knife and sticking it in someone for nothing more than a pair of trainers.”
Harper joined as a special constable in 2010 before becoming a police officer a year later, serving in the Roads Policing Proactive Unit based at Abingdon Police Station.
Chief Constable Campbell added that Harper “only married four weeks ago”, and pictures show the victim and his new wife Lissie celebrating their wedding at the award-winning stately venue Ardington House, a Georgian manor in Oxfordshire set in gardens and parkland.
Relatives described the day as a “dream wedding”.Campbell said the police constable was a “highly regarded, popular member of the team”, adding: “Everybody I’ve spoken to about Andrew talked about the incredible personality he was, what a fantastic police officer, and what a great friend and man he was, and he’ll be sorely missed by everybody.”
He said: “My thanks go to all those staff and officers who attended this incident, as well as our colleagues at the
fire service and also the ambulance service for their professionalism and support at what you can imagine was obviously a distressing scene.”
Thames Valley Police force’s flags are flying at half mast as a sign of respect “in honour and memory of Andrew”, Campbell explained.
Harper is the first officer to be killed on duty since March 2017, when unarmed Pc Keith Palmer was stabbed by Khalid Masood during the Westminster Bridge terror attack.
The incident comes after a police constable was run over by a suspected car thief in Birmingham last week.
The married 42-year-old traffic officer from West Midlands Police is facing “potentially life-changing” injuries, a senior officer told the PA news agency.
This happened just days after Metropolitan Police constable Stuart Outten, 28, was left with head and hand injuries after challenging a motor offences suspect allegedly armed with a machete in Leyton, east London.Related... Police Officer 'Murdered' While Attending Burglary In Berkshire London Home Office On Lockdown After Stabbing