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London police chief watched from his car as a fellow officer was stabbed to death by a terrorist
Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey testified that he watched a fellow officer get stabbed to death from a locked car during the terrorist attack in London last year. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

London police chief watched from his car as a fellow officer was stabbed to death by a terrorist

The Deputy Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police testified that he witnessed a fellow officer get stabbed to death by a terrorist during a March 2017 attack -- and he did not act, according to the Independent.

Craig Mackey, who was acting commissioner of the Met Police at the time of the attack, gave his account of the event as part of an investigation into the deaths of the terrorist, Khalid Masood, and the victims he ran over with his vehicle before fatally stabbing officer Keith Palmer.

"I think anyone who came up against that individual would have faced serious, serious injury, if not death," Mackey told investigators, noting that although he had an "instinct" to get out of the car, he felt he wasn't properly equipped because he was unarmed and wearing a short-sleeved shirt.

How it happened

On March 22, 2017, Khalid Masood drove a vehicle into pedestrians on the Westminster Bridge and then crashed into a barrier. Four people were killed: Kurt Cochran, Leslie Rhodes, Aysha Frade, and Andreea Cristea. Twenty-nine others were injured.

After crashing, Masood exited the vehicle with two knives, running toward the gates of the parliament building, where he stabbed Palmer.

Mackey was leaving a meeting at the Houses of Parliament when he said he heard a loud bang caused by Masood crashing the car. He locked the doors of his vehicle and witnessed Palmer being stabbed.

"I could see PC Palmer moving backwards and him going down," Mackey said.

Mackey said he locked the doors because he was in the car with two unarmed colleagues, he himself was not armed, and he felt the best thing to do was to look out for their safety while properly equipped officers handled the attack.

"There was quite a lot of confusion about what was going on," Mackey said. "Clearly the way that the male came in and the purposeful way he came, he was clearly a threat."

Mackey said he started to get out of the vehicle once officers had shot and killed Masood, but officers on the scene told him to get to safety and manage the department's response to the attack.

The entire attack lasted 82 seconds, according to the Independent.

"The thing that still shakes me about the attack is that it was 80-plus seconds in total," Mackey said. "It didn't feel like that it felt an awfully long time."

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