Cambridgeshire father with depression shot dead by police
The widow of a man shot dead by police told an inquest that her eldest child sent her a text message saying: 'Dad's going to kill himself. He's tied us up. I'm not joking.'
Richard Davies had learned his marriage was over, spent the day drinking then tied up his children when armed police were called to his home.
The 41-year-old had fired six shots from inside his home before he died of a single gunshot wound to the chest fired by a police officer.
Mr Davies, a father of three, died at the family's home in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, on October 21, 2015.
Richard Davies had learned his marriage was over, spent the day drinking then tied up his children when armed police were called to his homeÂ
Forensics at the scene in Duck Lane, St Neots, where Richard Davies, 41 was shot dead by police marksmen
His widow Samantha, who had been with him for 20 years, told jurors that she was at her sister's house when she received a text message from her eldest child.
The inquest at Peterborough Town Hall heard that it read: 'Call the police. Get them to come to our house. Dad's going to kill himself. He's tied us up. I'm not joking.'
She said she went straight to the house and found that one of her children had escaped by jumping from an upstairs window.
She believed her other two children were still in the house, and says she banged on the door and her husband opened it.
'He had a very angry look on his face,' said Mrs Davies. 'It was almost like a glazed look he had on his face.Â
Mr Davies’ mother, Gill, said she heard there had been an incident on the road where he lived but didn’t realise he was dead until the following day
The investigation is being led by the Independent Police Complaints Commission as is routine in this type of situation
'He didn't really look like my husband although he was my husband.'
She said he later appeared at the door while digging the tip of a kitchen knife slightly into his chest.
Her other two children later escaped by jumping from windows and their aunt took them to her house.
Mrs Davies said police asked her to go into her neighbour's house, and she recalled armed officers alerting her husband of their presence and him shouting back.
Richard Davies, 41, had agreed to move out of the home he shared with his wife
'He was shouting at them to shoot him,' she said. 'He was almost egging them on.'
She said she did not hear everything that happened and was not told that her husband had died until she visited the hospital.
Earlier that day she said she had a conversation with her husband in which 'it was made clear that the marriage was over'.
'I think on several occasions he would try to convince me it might be fixable,' she said.
'He was saying he wasn't sure what his life would be like without me and the children in it.'
But she said 'there wasn't an ounce of anger' and it was a practical conversation about him moving out the following weekend.
'At tha t point he seemed to have some acceptance around what needed to happen,' said Mrs Davies.
She said she had never seen his home-made gun or ammunition before, and her family were 'forever changed' by what happened.
The inquest heard Mr Davies had a troubled past, having battled depression, served time in prison for breaking a man's jaw.
He also suffered with bowel cancer in 2012 and was signed off work following difficulty with a colleague.
The inquest continues.
The children managed to escape and raise the alarm but when armed police arrived he shot at them twice with a home-made pistol and shouted: ‘F****** shoot me’
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