Blinded Police Officer Fought Off London Attackers With Baton After Stabbing
A London police officer recounted his encounter with London Bridge attackers this week, saying that he fought off three of the attackers with only his police-issued baton while he was temporarily blinded after being stabbed in the head.
In a BBC interview released Thursday, 38-year-old Wayne Marques, who was born in Birmingham, spoke openly for the first time since the London Bridge attack earlier this June. He said he sustained several knife wounds while trying to fight off the attackers.
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Marques worked with British Transport police for two years and was a police community support officer six years earlier. During his shift on the night of the attacks, he recalled hearing people screaming and running. He thought the commotion was a pub brawl, but as he approached the scene he learned that there had been stabbings.
"All I was trying to do was keep people alive," the policeman told the BBC.
Marques claimed that as the attackers — Youssef Zaghba, Rachid Redouane and Khuram Butt — were terrorizing civilians, he approached the three men to prevent them from further harming anyone.
Marques was reportedly alerted by an off-duty Metropolitan policeman who claimed he saw someone get stabbed. Marques saw people being attacked in Borough High Street near the London Bridge Street and advanced on one of the attackers.
"I had no real idea what was going on — and I hear this woman scream behind me," he said. "I look and see a young woman and she is being attacked by the first one. I see another man running towards me and he falls flat."
One of the attackers approached Marques wielding a knife, and the officer attempted to subdue him.
"When he falls to the floor I see the first attacker with the knife in his hand," he recalled. "And then my brain starts to click into gear. This guy on the floor is pleading for his life and the attacker stands over him and continues to attack him."
During the scuffle with the attackers, Marques sustained a wound near his right eye as well as other injuries to his head. After being stabbed, Marques said he couldn't recall much except for "swinging [my baton] all over the place."
"The three of them were standing together almost shoulder to shoulder, like a little wolf pack, and they’re staring at me,” he said. "And that’s when I get to size them up."
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Marques has since recovered his eyesight since the incident. He said he didn’t fathom how badly he was hurt until after the event as a result of all the commotion.
"I didn’t realize how badly I was hurt," he said. "The adrenaline, the fighting, all of that, I could feel what they were doing to me but I couldn’t feel it at the same time. I could just feel that I’d been cut and hurt."
He added, "And I’m basically just like a cowboy western movie waiting for the draw, waiting for them to make their move."
Zaghba, Butt and Redouane, the attackers, killed eight people June 3. They drove a van in the direction of London Bridge and plowed into civilians before they carried on to Borough Market and wounded several people during a stabbing spree. All three of the attackers were shot dead by police.
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