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Raoul Moat cops excited by new stun guns

Jul 18 2010 Sunday Sun

POLICE officers hunting for Raoul Moat were “excited“ by the arrival of new Tasers just hours before they entered a stand-off with the fugitive gunman, it was reported last night.

Witnesses described seeing the weapons being handed out to officers who they said then practised firing them at rubbish sacks.

Killer Moat, 37, died after shooting himself in the early hours of last Saturday morning at the end of a six-hour stand-off in the village of Rothbury, Northumberland.

It followed a week-long manhunt for the steroid-abusing father-of-three, who killed karate instructor Chris Brown, 29, and wounded his former girlfriend Sam Stobbart, 22, and Pc David Rathband, 42.

Moat went on the rampage after Miss Stobbart said she had left him for another man.

She watched as he blasted her new boyfriend to death before turning his gun on her.

Miss Stobbart, who has been under police armed guard in hospital since being shot in the stomach, is reported to hope that the killer “rots in hell” contrary to reports last week that she still loves him.

According to a relative she feels responsible for Mr Brown’s death.

The relative, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals by Moat’s former associates, said: “Sam is beside herself. She is absolutely devastated at what happened to Chris and knows it was because of what she said to Raoul about having a new boyfriend.

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