A man who died earlier this month after he accidentally shot himself in the chest with his own shotgun has been named as 22-year-old Reece Ramsey-Johnson.
The 22-year-old was reportedly found lying in a pool of blood, with wounds to his chest, outside a bank in Sydenham, London, on September 8.
An inquest into his death, at Southwark Coroners’ Court, this week heard police would not be conducting a criminal investigation, and concluded Ramsey-Johnson accidentally killed himself with his own gun.
According to witnesses of the incident, Ramsey-Johnson’s gun may have gone off as he attempted to use it to hit a car window, the Evening Standard reports.
According to the coroner, Dr Andrew Harris, the police investigation into the death has now ended, as ‘the investigating officer is satisfied there is no third party involvement.’
Dr Harris said:
Witness testimony suggests the actions of the deceased led to his death, and the police are not conducting a criminal investigation.
The coroner adjourned the inquest for now, with a full hearing to be carried out in January next year. Dr Harris said: ‘There is reason to suspect this was an unnatural or violent death.’
According to the post mortem exam, the cause of death was ‘shotgun wounds to the chest’.
Reece-Johnson was reportedly involved in an altercation in the street moments before he accidentally shot himself.
In a video recorded by a witness at the scene, a masked man crouching over the 22-year-old can be heard to shout: ‘He’s shot himself, he’s f*cking shot himself.’
The video then showed the masked man and another man running off before a witness appeared and called the emergency services.
At the time, a witness said:
It looked like he was using the butt of the gun on the car window and it backfired. When I got there they were saying he shot himself.
As per MailOnline, another witness said:
A group of guys were sitting in a car by the bank and a big guy came up to them with a shotgun.
They all got out of the car and ran so the guy decided to damage the car with the back of the gun.
As he was hitting the windows the gun went off and he shot himself – that’s what we’ve been told.
Members of Ramsey-Johnson’s family were absent from the court hearing yesterday, September 26, though friends in attendance said: ‘we can’t believe he’s gone.’
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.