Tony Long - Lethal Force: My Life As the Mets Most Controversial Marksman

All units: state red, state red!

Under the huge shadow of the M1 above us, our convoy of unmarked vehicles turned right at the mini roundabout. I threw down the map book and picked up my 36 and my Kevlar lid. I could see the silver VW Golf ahead, the rear-seat passenger was looking back , and I was getting a bad feeling. Graham, commander of our lead vehicle, Alpha, was now running the show and would need to pick the spot, soon. We were running out of time!

If suitable were looking to do it at the roundabout if he stops, came Grahams voice over the radio, then almost immediately: Attack, attack!

The G36 was already on my lap. My fingers tightened on the pistol grip and my thumb felt the resistance of the safety catch. I watched as Alpha commenced its overtake. My driver, Smudge, throttled it to close the gap on the accelerating lead vehicle and our target, the Golf, and its three edgy occupants. My eyes locked on to the rear passenger; he was in the nearside seat and unusually animated. I now had no doubt we were burnt. I sensed the atmosphere in the VW and imagined a heated discussion between the three men. I could taste the iron tang of blood. Adrenalin surged through my body.

Our car closed in rapidly. I wound down my window and felt the fresh breeze hit my face as I flipped on my Kevlar helmet. No time to worry with straps. I shouldered my weapon, instinctively brushing the safety to fire, my finger hovering beside the trigger guard. I was oblivious to anything other than that rear-seat passenger.

We were close now, just yards away. His hands were on the front seats and he was leaning forward as if he was bracing himself. Suddenly he pushed himself backwards and twisted to look over his left shoulder, then spun to look over his right. He seemed to look straight through me, oblivious to my presence.

Abruptly he threw himself down across the back seat. I was really close now, so close that if his window wasnt up I felt I could have reached out and touched the top of his head. Was he trying to hide or was he reaching for a gun? Just as quickly, he was up again, his shoulders hunched, his hands out of sight below the window of the rear passenger door.

He was armed, I was certain of it! Hed picked up the heavy, box-like, MAC 10 and was readying himself to fire. I held my breath as I aligned my iron sights on his centre mass, my finger curled around the trigger. No more time. I was going to have to shoot him and I was going to have to do it now. At any second my colleagues would be on foot and vulnerable, not only to the murderous rate of fire of the MAC 10 but also to my shots. Our car was alongside. No time to shout a warning! The rear half of the back passenger window shattered as the 65-grain soft points exploded from the stubby barrel of my Heckler & Koch.

And then he was gone.

Waiting for a run through on a military close quarter battle range wearing our old grey coveralls and very basic kit, armed with a Heckler & Koch MP5 equipped with a trial weapons light. Hereford, 1986.Making do with nothing in the early days. Black team practises bus assaults without a bus.Black team poses for a group photograph during counter-terrorist training. Hereford, 1986.In a hasty urban sniper position overlooking an IRA weapons cache as part of Operation Catnip in 1992. The weapon is an H&K 93 5.56mm rifle equipped with a Zeiss telescopic sight.Armed with my MP5, I prepare to enter a room during live fire, close quarter combat (CQC) training. My number two prepares to post a flash-bang grenade. Blue team, Lippitts Hill, 1997.Why me again? Monitoring a wounded armed robber at Plumstead abattoir, July 1987.Working with local Kittitian police in the search for the missing assistant prime ministers son and his girlfriend, St Kitts 1994.Dressed as a cleaner in the bowels of the Millennium Dome preparing for an operation to catch the gang trying to steal diamonds worth 350 million on display.A hostage rescue demonstration at the new Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre at Gravesend in Kent, using purpose-built assault vehicle and pyrotechnic distractions. A far cry from the make-do of the early days!Members of Red team await the surrender of two failed suicide bombers at Dalgamo Gardens, West London. Operation Thesius, July 2005.Manning a counter-sniper position overlooking Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, during a ceremonial event in 2006. I am armed with an Accuracy International 7.62mm sniper rifle equipped with a Schmitt & Bender scope.SFO assaulters and White team snipers during a tactical training exercise in 2008. Im on the left with a rifle in India 99, the Mets helicopter.The challenge coin minted to celebrate the hard work of those that volunteered for Operation Edge. Courtesy of Ben from Platypus.A variant of the 9mm MAC-10 sub-machine gun that we anticipated facing when we stopped the car that Azelle Rodney was travelling in. Capable of firing 18 rounds per second, these lead super-soakers had been converted from deactived weapons by a back street armourer and had flooded the criminal market.SFOs kit up in the backyard of a nick for a hostage rescue operation. The nearest assaulter is a Method of Entry (MOE) operator equipped with a Bennelli shotgun loaded with Hatton rounds for door breaching.