Chainsaw thug who chased cop down Scots street in murder bid found GUILTY
A CHAINSAW-wielding maniac who chased after a cop in a terrifying murder bid was today nailed over the horror attack.
Albanian national Liridon Kastrati hunted down PC Gary Cowan through the middle of a street in Paisley, Renfrewshire in broad day light.
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Albanian Liridon Kastrati’s violence spree was captured on videoCredit: Refer to source
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Police officer seen fleeing for his life in broad daylight last year
Terrifying footage shows the officer fleeing for his life as crazed Kastrati, 32, runs after him, shouting and pointing the running chainsaw in his direction.
PC Cowan told a court how he feared the thug would ‘saw his arms and chop his head off’.
Kastrati was today convicted by a jury of attempting to murder the cop after trial at the High Court in Paisley.
They heard how his vehicle had crashed into PC Cowan’s marked police car at a junction in the town’s Glasgow Road on May 6 last year at 1.30pm before he grabbed the chainsaw and started it up.
Giving evidence last week, PC Cowan said after the crash, Kastrati got out of the driver’s side door, looked at the police car and “began to run away”.
He said he approached him with the intention of arresting him but when he was “about 10 metres” away Kastrati returned to his vehicle and got the chainsaw before pursuing him, shouting, “f*** the police”.
PC Cowan said. “He was chasing after me with the chainsaw, holding the chainsaw up, running after me.”
He added: “I thought if I don’t create distance, he is going to kill me.”
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The police officer, 35, said he believed Kastrati would “saw my arms off, chop my head off,” and that he was “terrified”.
PC Cowan’s colleague PC Kelly Ferris, who had been in the passenger seat, said she was “completely dazed and quite scared” following the impact, and that the car was “filling with smoke” from its airbags.
She said when she got out of the car and started to look for PC Cowan she “heard the chainsaw just to my right hand side and looked in that direction”.
She added: “I saw a male chasing my colleague down Glasgow Road.”
The 47-year-old said she began running after them, shouting to the man to “put the chainsaw down”, and at one point when she was “about a dozen paces” away he stopped running and turned to face her.
She told the court: “He was swinging the chainsaw back and forward, and he was shouting to ‘get the cameras, I want the media here, get the media here’.”
She said throughout the incident she focused on keeping her distance from Kastrati , adding: “I knew if he got near me he would kill me.”
After multiple officers arrived on the scene, video footage shows Kastrati drop the chainsaw before being arrested.
His brother Leonard Kastrati, 29, who was in the black VW Passat with him, said Kastrati did not have a UK driving licence at the time of the incident.
Leonard Kastrati also said his brother came to the UK “about seven years ago”, and that since his arrival he had experienced problems in relation to his immigration status.
Witness Dareusz Glinkowski, 33, a mechanic who had been out on a test drive with a colleague on Glasgow Road, told the court how he saw the incident unfold and tried to help.
He said initially he and his colleague pulled over and got out but stopped when they saw Kastrati start to chase PC Cowan with the chainsaw.
He said he and his colleague then began driving in the same direction the two men were running in, and they came up alongside the police officer so he could get into their car “to save his life”.
But he said: “The police officer didn’t go to the car, he refused. He was a very brave man.”
Kastrati had denied a single charge of attempting to murder four police officers but today was convicted of an amended charge of attempted murder in relation to PC Gary Cowan.
The amended charge also removed reference to the car crash.On Monday, Kastrati was acquitted of charges of breach of the peace, stealing a car and motoring offences.
Kastrati will be sentenced on December 19 at the High Court in Paisley and Judge Gallacher told him to expect a “significant penalty”.
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John Scullion KC, defending Kastrati, told the jury: “Mr Kastrati accepts he removes a chainsaw from the car, he swore, he injured PC Cowan, he brandished the chainsaw at other officers during this frightening and distressing incident. You must convict him of those parts.”
After the case, Detective Inspector Jan MacColl said: “The courage and determination shown by officers, simply doing their jobs and the member of the public to quickly stop Kastrati ensured that the dangerous threat he posed to the local community was contained at the scene.”
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The attacker was seen dropping the weapon before being tackled by cops
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Several officers held him down following the rampage
