Shooting
Without warning, automatic gunfire was discharged into the anti-Gaddafi protesters at 10:18 am. Eleven people were hit, including the unarmed Fletcher who was fatally wounded in the stomach. As she lay on the ground, her fiancé was at her side. Fletcher was taken to Westminster Hospital where she died from her injuries approximately one hour later. Libyan radio reported that the embassy was stormed and that those in the building fired back in self-defence against "a most horrible terrorist action".
Fletcher's hat and four other officers' helmets were left lying in the square during the ensuing siege of the embassy. In the days that followed, the images of them were shown repeatedly in the British media.
The official inquest into Fletcher's death concluded she had been killed by shots from a Sterling submachine gun fired from the first floor of the Libyan embassy.
Read more about this topic: 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege
Famous quotes containing the word shooting:
“I’ll tell you one thing. If a little green man pops out at me I’m shooting first and asking questions later.”
—Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1922–1978)
“Writing or printing is like shooting with a rifle; you may hit your reader’s mind, or miss it;Mbut talking is like playing at a mark with the pipe of an engine; if it is within reach, and you have time enough, you can’t help hitting it.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)
“One ... aspect of the case for World War II is that while it was still a shooting affair it taught us survivors a great deal about daily living which is valuable to us now that it is, ethically at least, a question of cold weapons and hot words.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)