Awards given to heroes who wrestled Crawley College gunman to the ground as teenager is jailed

Sandijs Dreimanis has today (Friday 11 March) been jailed for the incident which sparked a significant police response on 26 April last year.

Around 3.12pm that day, police received multiple reports of a man armed with a gun, firing at people at the campus in College Road, Crawley.

A spontaneous firearms incident (SFI) was declared by Sussex Police, and immediate support was sought from neighbouring forces including Surrey, the Met, Kent, Hampshire, Thames Valley, British Transport Police and wider national colleagues.

A few minutes later, police were informed the suspect had been detained.

After hearing gun shots and seeing students flee from the campus, a lecturer and member of support staff pursued the defendant and challenged him – even after he turned around, raised his right arm and discharged a firearm directly towards them.

Together, they managed to disarm the 18-year-old of a gun – later confirmed to be a blank-firing imitation firearm – and a knife.