PC David Rathband, who was shot and blinded by gunman Raoul Moat, told UK police he was “OK” just days before being found dead at his home yesterday.
Concerns about his well-being were raised by Twitter users who contacted police follo-wing comments he made on the social networking site. He was reported to have tweeted “RIP PC Rathband” and that he had “lost my sight, my job, my wife and my marriage” and would “say goodbye to my children”.
But the father of two, who was due to return to work with the Northumbria force in April, assured officers he was all right and said he was looking forward to returning to work. He said the Tweets were posted by someone else.
Police are not looking for anyone in connection with his death after his body was discovered last night at his home in Blyth, Northumberland. The officer had been blasted twice in the face by Moat as he sat unarmed in his patrol car in July 2010.
Placing a bouquet close to the front door of PC Rathband’s home, well-wisher Paul Garner said he had become Moat’s final victim.
Former bouncer Moat was the subject of a huge manhunt in July 2010 as he evaded capture for a week before shooting himself dead after a stand-off with police in Rothbury, Northumberland. He shot and injured his former partner Samantha Stobbart, 22, and killed her new boyfriend, Chris Brown, 29. The following day, after declaring he was now “hunting for officers”, Moat crept up on PC Rathband, 44, as he sat in his police car. PC Rathband was shot twice and saved his own life by pretending to be dead.
He underwent surgery but lost the sight in both eyes and was left with more than 200 shotgun pellets lodged in his skull.
One shift that changed PC’s life
Until July 4 2010 PC David Rathband was a regular traffic cop who loved his job.
But that night he had the terrible misfortune to come into the sights of maniac Raoul Moat who blasted him twice at close range as he sat unarmed in his patrol car.
Horrifically injured, PC Rathband clung to the thought of his children Mia and Ashley as he waited for the emergency services to come and save him. Medics did just that, but his sight was lost.
His quiet bravery in the months that followed impressed millions as he spoke about the horrors he relived every time he put his head on the pillow. Scores of pieces of shot, many of which remained in his head, left him what he called 'black blind' and the 44-year-old policeman underwent many more operations to remove shrapnel.
PC Rathband was often joined by his wife, a nurse, while attending the trial of Moat's two accomplices. But by last November their marriage was over, broken by the stress of the ordeal Moat put them through. In September they announced they were to live separately to allow him to learn to live independently but he announced on Twitter in November that he and his wife Kath, were separating permanently.
PC Rathband once said: 'Raoul Moat changed my life forever, he didn't end it.'
Those words have a terrible poignancy in the light of his tragic death.