Police told not to stop car of shooting suspect

John MacKinnon was shot dead at his home on the Isle of Skye

Two police cars followed a shooting suspect off a Scottish island without stopping him before he went on to carry out another attack.

Police officers told a High Court trial they were ordered to tail but not stop Finlay MacDonald as he drove from Skye, where he had allegedly murdered his brother-in-law and attempted to stab his wife, to the village of Dornie in Ross-shire.

While there, Mr MacDonald, 41, is accused of attempting to murder John and Fay MacKenzie in a shooting at their home.

He denies all charges and has lodged a special defence to the murder allegation, claiming he was suffering from abnormality of mind.

Police were initially called to a stabbing at a house in Tarskavaig, but it was later upgraded to a shooting

Sgt Christopher Tait, who was a police constable at the time, told the trial in Edinburgh he was initially told to respond to a stabbing on the island at Tarskavaig, but it was later revised to include a shooting.

Sgt Tait, 36, said he saw Mr MacDonald’s Subaru vehicle drive past, at which point he performed a three-point turn and followed the vehicle.

He contacted the Police Scotland control room in Dundee and was joined by a police inspector in another car.

He said his blue-light sirens had initially been active but he had turned them off when he began following the Subaru.

Sgt Tait said Mr MacDonald appeared to be driving in a “normal” way as they passed over the Skye Bridge, but that he “sped up” when they approached the house in Dornie.

He recalled seeing the driver at the top of driveway holding a firearm before firing through the window.

The driver is then said to have run into the house, where Sgt Tait and his colleague followed before shouting at him to drop the weapon.

A taser was then discharged at the gunman and an injured man and woman were found at the home.

'Shouting and screaming'

Sgt Tait confirmed when asked by advocate depute Liam Ewing KC that he had not taken “operational decisions” on that day.

Mr Ewing asked Sgt Tait: “Did you consider an attempt to stop the Subaru at any point?"

The police officer said: "It did enter my head to come up with a plan to try and stop him but at the time I was told specialist firearms officers were coming up to stop him."

Donald Findlay KC, defence counsel for Mr MacDonald, asked him why and he said: "I was instructed by the control room."

Sgt Tait said he discharged his taser twice after running in to the house having heard “shouting and screaming” from inside.

He said he saw both occupants of the house with severe injuries.

Sgt Tait said he recalled the man had a serious injury to his abdomen, while the woman appeared to have suffered a facial injury.

Mr MacDonald was not stopped by police before reaching the house in Dornie

The trial later heard from Inspector Bruce Crawford, who was following in the second police car.

Asked if an attempt was made to stop Mr MacDonald's car, he replied: "I requested permission to try and stop the vehicle and was told by the control room not to stop the vehicle."

When he arrived in Dornie he saw the suspect fire the shotgun though a window and shouted loudly to him that he should put down the gun - but instead the man headed inside.

Insp Crawford followed the suspect, then heard two loud bangs and a woman screaming.

He found a man bleeding heavily from his side while grappling with the gunman, while a woman who was also bleeding, was striking the assailant with a metal toilet roll holder.

The police officer then used pava spray on the gunman and struck him with his baton, while a colleague used a Taser.

Earlier, the court heard how Mr MacDonald’s sister, Lynne-Anne Mackinnon, knew he could be “socially awkward” and had “strange ways of thinking”.

However she said she was not aware he was autistic before he shot and killed her husband.

She added she did not know that he had been bullied at high school.

The trial, at the High Court in Edinburgh, continues.