A mercenary said to have killed 46 Serbs in the former Yugoslavia died today after armed police shot him in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital.
Kirk John Davies, a sniper who was understood to have served with the elite Croatian Special Forces, was shot after confronting police in both North and West Yorkshire, armed with an air rifle camouflaged with webbing.
The so-called 'dog of war' died in Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, after emergency surgery earlier today.
The shooting happened just before midnight in a small wooded area near a secure unit, part of a hospital complex in Ouchthorpe Lane, Wakefield.
The tragedy unfolded from about 9pm when Mr Davies went to Selby police station dressed in black from head to foot, wearing a shooting hat and armed with the semi-automatic rifle, which he pointed at the officer on the desk.
No shots were fired at that time and Mr Davies, from Selby, then left the station in his red Austin Maestro.
North Yorkshire police mounted an armed manhunt but Mr Davies could not be traced.
West Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Andrew Brown said Mr Davies later threatened staff in the reception area of Newton Lodge secure unit, near Wakefield, where he told the receptionist that he was looking for a woman.
Mr Brown said that the woman may have been employed at one of the three hospitals in the complex, and that Mr Davies referred to the woman by name.
He said there appeared to be no connection between the secure unit and the dead man.
Police officers, some of them armed, conducted a search of the hospital grounds.
Mr Davies was found armed with a rifle wrapped in webbing.
Police negotiators were called, found Mr Davies, and challenged him to hand over his weapon.
"He refused to do so," said Mr Brown. "He then walked across the hospital grounds and into a wooded area, where he was again challenged and shots were fired by the police."
Mr Davies died at about 12.20am today after emergency surgery.
Today's tragedy came three years after Mr Davies appeared in court accused of affray and possessing an offensive weapon.
York Crown Court heard he had always believed his father was an SAS war hero and was enraged to find the stories were not true.
Dressed in full Croatian uniform and armed with a knife and a steel poker, he confronted his father at an address in Brayton, near Selby.
He attacked his father's car, and police who were called to the scene had to use CS spray to overcome him.
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