Murder of Raja Ahmed

Background

PC Raja Basharat Ahmed (26 June 1964 – 31 August 1999) was a British police officer serving with Greater Manchester Police (GMP). His parents had immigrated from Rawalpindi, Pakistan in 1963, and Ahmed was born in Manchester. Before joining the police, he worked in a variety of roles, including as a van driver, a warehouse security guard, and a Cash-in-Transit van driver, during which time he also trained and qualified as a car and motorcycle mechanic. He joined GMP in 1991 at age 27, initially in emergency response, before joining the force's motorcycling unit in 1994. At the time of his death he was also a part-time law student. Ahmed was the first GMP officer murdered on duty since Inspector Raymond Codling was shot at a motorway service area in 1989.

The Killing

On 31 August 1999, Ahmed was on motorcycle patrol in Miles Platting, central Manchester, when he spotted a suspected stolen Vauxhall Nova. The car also carried the driver's 27-year-old girlfriend, Sandra Reynolds, and her two daughters. When the driver noticed Ahmed, he reversed suddenly, forcing Ahmed to manoeuvre his BMW motorcycle between two other vehicles. The driver then accelerated at Ahmed's motorcycle, ramming it 82 feet (25 metres) forward into a busy road junction, where Ahmed was struck by an articulated lorry. He was taken to hospital by ambulance but died of his injuries.

Conviction

The driver of the stolen car was identified as 28-year-old Steven Draper of Salford, who was on probation at the time for various vehicle-related offences, including theft, and had appeared before courts on 24 previous occasions, including once for attacking a police officer with a screwdriver. Draper denied murdering Ahmed but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of causing death by dangerous driving. A jury of seven men and five women at Manchester Crown Court unanimously convicted him of murder. On 30 June 2000, Draper was sentenced to life imprisonment for causing Ahmed's death and was disqualified from driving for seventeen years, with a requirement to re-take his driving test if paroled.

Memorial

A monument commissioned by the Police Memorial Trust was erected at the junction of Oldham Road and Queens Road in Miles Platting, near where Ahmed was killed. On 31 August 2019, marking the twentieth anniversary of his death, a nearby road was named Raja Ahmed Street in his honour.