Today’s face of the day is ex-pat New Zealander Matt Ratana a 54-year-old policeman who was shot and killed by a person being detained at Croydon Custody Centre last Friday.
Sergeant Ratana worked for the UK police for nearly 30 years and was two months away from retirement when the tragedy occurred.
“As a colleague, he was big in stature and big-hearted, a friendly, capable police officer.
“A lovely man, highly respected by officers and staff, and by the public, including suspects he arrested or dealt with in custody.”
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He is survived by a partner and an adult son from a previous relationship.
Ratana was treated at the scene by officers and paramedics and was taken to hospital, but died overnight.
[…] The investigation would also look into how the suspect, a 23-year-old man, was able to get a gun into the police station.
Ratana went to school at Palmerston North Boys’ High School before attending the University of Otago where he played for Ravensbourne RFC.
Recently, Ratana had been a coach at East Grinstead Rugby Club where friends described him as “inspirational” and “larger than life”.
“He helped out at the club a lot. We lost funding and he came in and helped us,” Ratana’s friend, Paul, told Sky News.
“He was inspirational – so vibrant, so bubbly, larger than life. He will be a huge loss to the club.
“The man was a machine. He was at training last night from 7 to 9pm. That’s the last time I saw him. He was due to retire soon and was looking forward to it.”
Police stations across the UK are flying their flags at half-mast and officers also held a minute’s silence to honour Ratana.
Ratana joined the Met in 1991 and was captain of his recruit training class.
