Man with knife who 'moved at speed' towards police officers before he was shot dead in Milton Keynes named

3 April 2025, 16:03 | Updated: 3 April 2025, 19:22

A man who was shot dead by police after he "moved at speed" towards officers has been named as David Joyce.

The 38-year-old, who lived in Milton Keynes, was given first aid by officers but died at the scene after the incident on Tuesday.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has appealed for witnesses and confirmed its investigators collected a knife and other evidence from outside Milton Keynes railway station.

The police watchdog said: "No other weapons were recovered from the scene. The police cordon at the scene was lifted last night (2 April).

"We were advised by [Thames Valley Police] that firearms officers were sent to the station shortly before 1pm following a 999 call reporting that there was a man with a gun at the scene.

"We have viewed police officers' body-worn video footage and a substantial amount of CCTV footage and established that at around 1.04pm the man was just outside the railway station main entrance with a knife in his hand, and ran towards the officers.

"Shortly afterwards the man was shot at close range. We have established that a single shot was fired by one officer."

Mr Joyce's next of kin has been informed and he was formally identified at a post-mortem examination on Thursday morning (3 April).

Provisional cause of death is said to be a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.

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IOPC: Community will want answers

IOPC director Derrick Campbell said: "Our role is to independently investigate all of the circumstances surrounding this incident including the actions and decisions taken by the police.

"We appreciate that this incident outside a busy train station will understandably cause concern. We know the community will want answers quickly and our investigators are working hard to establish the facts as we piece together what happened and how.

"We have obtained details of some members of the public who witnessed the incident who we will be contacting, however we know there were many people near the station around the time of the shooting and we want to hear from anyone who may have seen the incident or has footage of it."

'Officers should be praised'

Matthew Barber, police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley, said he was "confident that the officers should be praised for their actions".

On Tuesday, local residents told the PA news agency they saw a large number of police at the scene and one person "lying on the floor and they were trying to resuscitate him".

Another woman added that they heard a "bang" and "quite a lot of commotion outside" but did not realise what had happened until she saw a man being given CPR.

(c) Sky News 2025: Man with knife who 'moved at speed' towards police officers before he was shot dead in Milton Keynes named