Michael Swindells QGM

Died

21 May 2004

Age

Rank

Detective Constable

Force

West Midlands Police

Cause

Homicide - Stabbed

Duty Status

On Duty

Roll of Honour Citation

Fatally stabbed by an armed suspect he had been in pursuit of. Posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.

Roll of Honour Citation

Fatally stabbed by an armed suspect he had been in pursuit of. Posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.

Circumstances

DC Swindells was stabbed once in the chest, penetrating his heart, while pursuing a suspect, known to be armed with a kitchen knife, on a towpath of the Tame Valley Canal underneath Gravelly Hill Interchange in Aston, Birmingham. The suspect had used the knife earlier in the day to threaten a carpenter carrying out routine repair work on a garden gate outside his council house, which led to DC Swindells and some of his colleagues later encountering the suspect on a park bench then pursuing him down the towpath for over half-a-mile.

Posthumously awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.

Fatally stabbed once in the chest, penetrating his heart, while pursuing a suspect, known to be armed with a kitchen knife, on a towpath of the Tame Valley Canal underneath Gravelly Hill Interchange in Aston, Birmingham.

The suspect had used the knife earlier in the day to threaten a carpenter carrying out routine repair work on a garden gate outside his council house, which led to DC Swindells and some of his colleagues later encountering the suspect on a park bench, then pursuing him down the towpath for over half-a-mile.

Posthumously awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.