A POLICE sergeant has spoken for the first time of the terrifying moment a one-armed man tried to kill him with a sawn-off shotgun on the streets of Loughton.
Sgt Rob Huddleston, 39, spoke to the Guardian today after he was honoured with a commendation award for bravery from Essex Police following the dramatic incident in Pyrles Lane last June.
Sgt Huddleston was travelling through the district in his police car at around 8am one Thursday morning when he received reports of a man driving erratically through Epping heading towards London.
He eventually managed to track him down in Loughton with the help of his colleagues, and pulled over the vehicle.
But just Sgt Huddleston was about to get out of his police car, the man emerged from his vehicle with the shotgun.
Sgt Huddleston said: "My first thought was 'you're not actually going to do that' and then at that point he aimed right at my head and shot at me.
"I ducked and very luckily he missed. He hit the windscreen right where my head had been, but because he only had one arm he wasn't able to steady the gun and the shells headed in an upwards trajectory, so they all deflected away from me.
"I stayed down for a moment. I remember thinking of my two-year-old son and thought oh god I might not ever see him again.
"But my training took over. I thought I couldn't stay ducked down. He could have been walking over towards me.
"I looked up but he had got back in his car, but I was able to give a description of him and the car before he drove off."
Not long after several miles away on the North Circular road the man was finally caught by another police team.
He added: "I was very fortunate that two members of the public came to my assistance and I was able to cordon off the scene and look for witnesses.
"It was only a few hours afterwards that it really hit home and I realised how close I was to never coming home."
The gunman, 22-year-old Kenny Spence, from Romford Road in Collier Row, was later found guilty of attempted murder, and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Sgt Huddleston, who has been a police officer for six years and is currently based at Loughton Police Station, added: "I'm honoured and over the moon to receive the award, but at the end of the day I was just doing my job."
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