A Mid Wales gunman who terrorised two police community support officers after he took the law into his own hands has been jailed for two years.
Russell Price Ellis thought the police in Newtown were not doing enough to catch the people responsible for thefts from his late mother’s house and he warned officers he was going to go after those he thought were responsible.
But when he crept up to one intended victim’s house and found the two PCSOs on watch outside, he turned his gun on them, Mold Crown Court heard yesterday.
Ellis, 42, of Violet Close, Newtown, admitted possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and was jailed for two years.The court heard he had lived in his late mother’s house which had become something of a shrine to her.
He became upset that after a fire at the property in Newtown, a number of items had been stolen.
One August afternoon Ellis told police that he had “had enough” and planned to take the law into his own hands.
Mr Michael Whitty, prosecuting, said: “He said that he had a firearm and intended to use it.
“He was going to use it on those who had taken his stuff and pop off a few others while he was at it.”
In a second call to the police he told how he was going to end it all.
Two community support officers, Graham Jennings and Emma Davies, who had spoken to Ellis about his concerns earlier in the day, were sent to keep watch at the home of one of the men Ellis had named. That night Ellis approached the unmarked police car with a large handgun in one hand.
He walked around the car, stood between five and 10 feet away and raised the gun, adopting the firing position. Ellis swore at the officers and waved the gun aggressively before walking away.
Telephone contact was made with the defendant who went to the local police station. The gun, a G10 repeater, semi-automatic ball bearing pistol, was found under Ellis’s garden shed. Mr Paul Smith, for Ellis, said he was “sad not bad” and was in a very distressed state at the time.
By Deborah Knox
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