On 19th April 1987 a small patrol of TA soldiers stopped at a petrol station outside the town of Hungerford in Berkshire. One of the female soldiers needed to use the WC, apparently to change a female sanitary product, while two of her male colleagues decided to buy a snack in the shop. Critically they left their rifles in their Land Rover, but the female soldier was, sensibly, carrying her L2A3 Sterling Mk.4, even if she was visiting the toilet.
None of the soldiers was particularly alert so they were taken by surprise when a man armed with an American M1 carbine emerged from the shop and immediately opened fire. The two male soldiers were killed instantly and the female wounded, though she was able to return fire, emptying the entire 30 round magazine from her Sterling at their attacker, slightly wounding him.
Before the soldiers in the other Land Rover had time to react the gunman had jumped into his car, a Vauxhall Astra GTE and sped off. The patrol commander decided to leave one man to give first aid to the female soldier and await the arrival of the ambulance and police while the others attempted to give chase.
The man they were chasing was 27 year old Michael Robert Ryan. He had already murdered a woman in
Michael Robert Ryan
nearby Savernake Forrest and had also tried, unsuccessfully to murder the cashier in the petrol station. It now seemed that he was planning a rampage through his home town of Hungerford.
Sadly for further events the Land Rover was unable to keep up with the Astra and Ryan was able to reach his home, where upon he murdered his mother and set fire to his house after retrieving more weapons, including a Chinese built semi-auto Type 56 rifle and a Berretta 92 automatic pistol. Ryan now killed two of his neighbours and the first police officer to respond to the incident, who was shot dead in his car. Fortunately at this point the second army Land Rover arrived on the scene, having spotted the police car responding to the incident. The four soldiers on board were all armed with L1A1 SLRs, giving them comparable firepower to Ryan.
Again, however, Ryan managed to get the drop on them and opened fire as they debussed from the vehicle, killing the patrol commander and wounding one other soldier, before running off towards the town's common with the two remaining soldiers in hot pursuit. They were soon joined by two local Police Constables armed with Smith & Wesson .38 revolvers (war reserve stock weapons). Ryan was able to shoot and wound one more civilian before he was cornered by the Security Forces. Having witnessed four of their colleagues killed, two wounded and several civilians shot in cold blood the soldiers and police officers were in no mood to offer Ryan an opportunity to surrender and shot him as soon as they had the chance. The autopsy performed counted over thirty 7.62mm rounds and ten .38 pistol bullets in his body.
Ryan's reasons for committing the massacre are unclear, but it is known that he was mentally unbalanced and had an unhealthy obsession with firearms. Perhaps shockingly his weapons were legally owned. By the end of his rampage four soldiers, one police officer and four civilians were dead; a total of nine; and two more soldiers and a civilian were badly wounded. It was extremely fortunate that Ryan encountered the army patrol that day as they were the only people with the sort of firepower in the area who could take him on. The Thames Valley Police Firearms unit were 40 miles away on a training exercise, the force helicopter was being repaired and the neighbouring Wiltshire Police Firearms Unit was hunting for whoever had carried out the murder in the forest, they did not yet know that the perpetrator was Ryan.
Without the soldier's timely intervention many more innocent people might have been killed.