Hero officer who ended samurai killer rampage had ‘no time for fear’

A police officer who confronted sword killer Marcus Monzo after he murdered 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin in east London has praised his ‘undoubtedly heroic’ colleagues for stopping Monzo’s rampage.

Inspector Moloy Campbell’s hand was sliced open by Monzo’s blade while attempting to bring him down with pepper spray and a baton on April 30 last year.

Monzo, 37, who was convicted of murder this week, had nearly decapitated Daniel, attacked a couple in their home and repeatedly slashed first-responder PC Yasmin Mechem-Whitfield.

Inspector Campbell and his sergeant drove to the scene after the injured officer’s colleague radioed for help.

He said: ‘As we were heading to the incident my sergeant was driving and I was in the operator seat.

‘As we heard that transmission, “police officer stabbed, police officer stabbed”, I turned to him and said: “Just get us there, don’t speed up, don’t let red mist get to you. We need to get there and get control of this incident”.’

Inspector Campbell confronted Monzo in a car park and ran at him with his baton drawn, a scene captured by police bodycam.

He continued: ‘There was no time for fear. That is not a reflection of bravery of me or anyone else, it’s a fact, there was no time for that.

‘There is a job to be done and there was an objective that needed to be met and that was, as I say, the preservation of life.

‘At that point there was no help coming. Armed police were coming but they were 10, 15 minutes away and that’s far too long in that situation.

‘That’s not the fault of my colleagues, it’s just the way it played out on that morning.

‘It was a case of doing what I thought needed to be done. It was a decision of do we contain the defendant or do we confront.

‘The decision was to confront because I felt had we done anything else then more members of the public and potentially police officers would have been seriously injured or worse.’

Inspector Campbell described how Monzo slashed at him with the sword, splitting his hand so wide open that his thumb was ‘hanging down’ and he could see the inside of his flesh.

He then withdrew while colleagues, who had just arrived, applied a tourniquet and attempted to rejoin the fray before going into shock.

The other officers then managed to bring Monzo down using tasers.

Inspector Campbell has said he does not see himself as a hero but said otherwise about his team, who ‘did what we do every day’.

He added: ‘I think to describe yourself as a hero would be slightly distasteful. I think they know what I think of them in terms of whether they are a hero or not.

‘I’m proud of them every day and they needed no supervision nor direction to chase down a man with a sword. That should speak volumes.

‘But right now as I speak there is probably a police officer somewhere in the country chasing someone with a knife or something else.

‘What we saw in Hainault was extraordinary circumstances in the way it turned out but it’s not unusual to have someone running round with a knife at 7am. It’s not unusual at all.

‘They regularly turn out from parade and go on blue lights having been asleep two hours ago and switch into that mode.’

Witnesses described Monzo dropping to his knees with both arms raised while screaming ‘in delight’ after killing Daniel.

He claimed he was in the grip of a psychotic episode which made him believe an event ‘like Armageddon’ was happening, and had no memory of events after leaving home.

The court heard he had fallen into heavy use of cannabis and psychedelic drugs and followed spiritualist beliefs which led him to start drinking his urine and washing himself with it.

A dual Spanish-Brazilian national who grew up in Brazil and moved to the UK a decade ago, he had fallen out with his family over his habits and ended up living in Newham.

Shortly before the murder, jurors heard, he killed and cooked his pet cat Wizard believing he was ‘was being used against me by negative forces’.

He said he was going to eat Wizard but decided ‘the world was collapsing’, packed some clothes, his swords and a bell-bearing gun and headed out.

Monzo is due to be sentenced at a hearing later today.

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