BBC1
On Boxing Day 2003, PCs Ian Broadhurst and Neil Roper were on a routine traffic patrol around Leeds. Seeing a stolen BMW parked on the pavement, they stopped to investigate.
Taking the driver into the back of their police car for further questioning, PCs Broadhurst and Roper soon began to suspect there was more to the American’s story than met the eye, but before they could find out more and handcuff and arrest him, he pulled out a gun and began firing. As PC Broadhurst lay outside the car, begging for his life, the American shot him in the head, shot PC Roper twice and shot a third officer.
PC Roper survived to radio back to base, but he was unable to save the life of his partner. In Death of a Policeman he re-lives the terrifying ordeal for the first time. And, with access to footage from inside the police car, we experience the true horror of the event, as Roper tries to save his colleague, radio for help and stop his own gunshot wound bleeding.
A year later, the American, David Bieber, who had stolen the identity of a dead five year old child and had come to the UK to flee charges of contract killing, was tried for the murder. This remarkable and chilling film was broadcast within days of the end of the trial that saw Beiber imprisoned for life.
Death of a Policeman was acquired by American broadcaster CBS and screened as part of the channel’s flagship 48 Hours Mystery strand.