A year ago today, Liverpool woke up to the news a man wearing flip flops and wielding an assault rifle had been roaming the streets
20:32, 04 Jan 2025Updated 20:32, 04 Jan 2025
Leslie Garrett firing an AK47 in Sangha’s off-licence(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Over the course of a number of hours on the evening of January 3 into the morning of January 4 last year, a terrifying manhunt played out on the streets of Merseyside. The tranquillity of the damp and dreary Wednesday evening, which saw parents and children seeking solace from the post-Christmas blues inside the East Lancs’ Showcase Cinema, was punctured when Leslie Garrett walked into its lobby.
Wearing flip flops and a long green overcoat with his hood up, Garrett was armed with an AK47 assault rifle. Garrett was in the midst of a rampage and had already opened fire in a newsagents before heading to the pub for a pint and showing the weapon off to fellow drinkers.
The dad had worked at the Showcase as a security guard for many years but lost his job three months previously when his drinking problem got on top of him. Now, he was discharging gunshots into the air outside as his ex-colleagues ducked for cover.
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Although he previously had the odd brush with the law, Garrett’s criminal record only showed entries for minor offences. He was also barely known to the mental health services. But by his own account, he had fostered an array of dark emotions locked deep inside himself for many years and, that night, it all came to a head.
His early years were marred by tragedy and trauma after he witnessed one of his brothers being run over before a family friend was murdered in front of him as he was eating his tea. As an adult, his baby son died at the age of only six weeks. However, the “straw that broke the camel’s back”, as one forensic psychiatrist described it, came when another of his brothers died from diabetes.
The first indication that Garrett was struggling came in 2016, when “everything got on top of him” and he presented at A&E reporting he was suffering from suicidal thoughts and was “on autopilot”. Five years late,r in May 2021, he attended his GP surgery with “low mood and PTSD symptoms”. He was prescribed antidepressants and offered therapy but he only attended one session and never took his medication.
Only a month before he brought carnage and chaos to the city, Garrett dialled 999 on December 5, 2023 and told a call handler “my time here is done”. Sadly, nothing was done. In the autumn of last year, Garrett had been homeless and living in his car after being kicked out by a family member due to his self-confessed “awful” behaviour. And, in October, he was sacked from the Showcase Cinema. A court would later hear this was because of “complaints about his behaviour towards other members of staff”, although he would claim it was due to him being under the influence of alcohol.
Leslie Garrett, 50, from Fazakerley
It was around this time that he was allegedly approached by two men who offered him £300 to mind a bag, the contents of which were not disclosed to him. When curiosity got the better of him and he peeked inside a week after accepting the proposal, he discovered a Czech-manufactured military “AK47-style rifle” dating back to 1964 alongside more than 300 cartridges.
Garrett was a man who had long held an interest in, and had a knowledge of, guns. He enjoyed hunting as a younger man and would often watch YouTube videos about firearms. On January 3 Garrett argued with his partner and began drinking rum at around 1pm.
Over the next 24 hours he would down a bottle-and-a-half leading to the moment he set foot in Sangha’s off-licence, in Lower House Lane, Norris Green. Amandeep Singh had been working alone as a shop assistant that evening and was standing behind the till of the empty store at around 7.30pm.
CCTV later released to the press showed Garrett enter, demand “come on, money” before revealing the gun and firing a single shot into the plastic protective screen at the counter. Mr Singh, who initially believed the incident to be an elaborate joke, fled to the stock room in fear while Garrett quickly left the store empty handed.
He hopped into his Ford Focus and made his way to the Western Approaches pub. He ordered a drink and began chatting to other drinkers at the bar. He later led two customers outside and showed them inside the boot of his car. After realising what was inside, they quickly backed away.
Garrett produced the gun to them before getting back in his car and driving away again this time bound for the Showcase Cinema. Arriving shortly after 8.45pm, he found Danielle Mea working as a cashier behind the ticket desk and Philip Smith on duty as security.
Police at Sangha’s on Lower House Lane in Liverpool(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Like Mr Singh before them, they too believed that what was unfolding in front of them was a prank. The guard, thinking the weapon to be an imitation firearm, responded to the gunman pointing the rifle in the face of his colleague by saying: “Drop the peashooter and don’t point it at her.”
Garrett was not recognised by the staff members due to his hood and told Mr Smith to “come see” and gestured for him to follow into the car park. He pointed the gun at Mr Smith before moving it to his left and firing. Mr Smith shouted back to Ms Mea “get down, get out”.
Garrett then fired for a second time, this time into the air. He continued discharging the weapon several times as he left through the back of the building, with 12 bullet casings ultimately being recovered from the scene. The cinema was placed on lockdown with moviegoers stunned to find armed police swarming outside.
Garrett left at speed and went to a Go Local store but this time the rifle remained in the car. He picked up two bottles of vodka on credit before leaving without a fuss. He went to his mum’s address in Ternhall Road, Fazakerley, before moving on to his partner Jennifer Forshaw’s home in Malpas Road, Croxteth, at around 10pm.
It was here that Garrett let off the gun a third time, with one resident later reporting how her children were awoken by the loud bangs. The mum called the police and was warned to lock her doors and switch her lights off. By the time officers arrived, Garrett had gone.
Ms Forshaw told them her partner had fired the gun into the night’s sky unprompted, having kept the weapon stashed at her address. And there it was discovered by the police, alongside the huge collection of ammunition under her mattress. Garrett, meanwhile, returned to his mum’s house. Shortly after 4.30am, a team of 16 firearms officers, two negotiators and a dog handler arrived en masse in ballistically-protected Land Rovers.
Police at the Showcase Cinema on East Lancashire Lane in Liverpool on Wednesday night(Image: Liverpool Echo)
His mum answered the door and was instructed to leave at gunpoint. Garrett then presented himself, “agitated and aggressive” and dressed only in a blue t-shirt and his boxer shorts. When instructed to surrender he simply replied: “F*** off d***head.” He was then tasered in order to prevent him from arming himself or barricading himself within the property. He fell to the floor and, some nine hours after it had begun, his astonishing crime spree was at an end.
Once in custody, Garrett remained silent under interview. However, appearing before Liverpool Crown Court the following month, he admitted all eight charges he faced. By the time of his sentencing, he said he had entered a basis of plea claiming his motivation was that he would be shot dead by police officers responding to the incident.
This resulted in a trial of issue – a hearing in which a judge decides the factual basis upon which a defendant is to be sentenced – before the same court, during which two psychiatrists gave their views on whether or not Garrett’s intention was “suicide by cop”.
Defence expert Dr Inti Qurashi said in his evidence: “It seems to me, he’s going from place to place to place – I think he’s escalating. It may have been partially financial, it may have been a grievance. But he wouldn’t have taken a gun, in my view, and fired it recklessly if he hadn’t been severely depressed.
“He’d lost all hope. He didn’t feel like living. He hasn’t done this before. It seems grossly disproportionate to what he’s previously been convicted for. Essentially he can’t commit suicide by his own hands because that’s a step too far for him, but he wants to kill himself. I can get the cops to do it for me.”
Police on Malpas Road
The prosecution’s psychiatrist Dr Prakash Raviraj, however, rejected the suggestion of “suicide by cop”. He told the court: “I would not agree that he was severely depressed. Moderate depression along with drinking was what I suggest was happening. It was almost bordering on dependence.”
Garrett too gave evidence during the two-day hearing, telling the court that the combined effect of the various events in his life had “killed him”. When questioned as to how he felt towards the Showcase Cinema following the termination of his employment he said: “Not angry towards them, just frustrated – frustrated at myself.”
Asked about the suggestion of a “motivation of suicide by cop”, he stated: “That’s how I was feeling. I’d had enough of everything. I don’t think my intentions would have been to hurt someone. Obviously, at that time, I didn’t know what my intentions were.”
Garrett was sentenced to 14 years’ jail days shy of his 50th birthday. He was also handed an additional four years on licence. Sentencing him, Judge David Aubrey said Garrett embarked on a “campaign of terror and fear and causing mayhem, during which many lives were potentially put at risk”.
Leslie Garrett(Image: Merseyside Police)
He added: “Whilst the court accepts that you have been subject to childhood trauma and have experienced difficulties with your mental health, in my judgment those factors were not the motivation in the commission of these offences. Anger, alcohol and resentment are constant themes and I am satisfied they were the catalysts for that which you did.
“I am satisfied that you were not seeking to place yourself in a position where trained police officers would have had no alternative but to take drastic and fatal action. You had every opportunity so to do and I am satisfied that, notwithstanding any disorder which I have found, you had no suicidal intent on the night of the offences.
“I am satisfied you knew precisely what you were doing, demanding money from the shop owner whilst holding and discharging a firearm. You appeared to enjoy showing that firearm to customers at the public house. You felt powerful and in control that night. I am satisfied that these offences were borne out of anger, alcohol, and resentment.”