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Top barrister shot dead in Chelsea siege
Kiran Randhawa and Justin Davenport, Evening Standard07.05.08
The gunman shot dead by police in the Chelsea siege was a high-flying barrister, it was revealed this afternoon.
Mark Saunders, 32, began firing at neighbours from the first-floor window of his £2.2 million flat in Markham Square, just off the King's Road, yesterday afternoon - sparking a five-hour stand-off.
It is understood he had been drinking heavily after an argument with his wife, 40-year-old Elizabeth Clarke, also a top divorce lawyer with the same chambers where they earned between £300,000 and £500,000 a year each. Mr Saunders is said to have chatted happily to a security guard as he left his office in the Temple at lunchtime.
Shortly before 5pm Mr Saunders, who had served with the Territorial Army, opened fire with a shotgun. Shoppers ran for cover and neighbours in one of London's wealthiest areas were told to shut themselves in their bathrooms as police snipers exchanged fire with him.
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Reader views (2)
I feel that it is outrageous that this man was shot dead. Surely policemen in Britain who carry guns are trained marksmen and faced with a man with a shotgun behaving in this way are capable of wounding as opposed to fatally shooting him - even if it was in the leg! Oh dear. The shadow of America and bad TV is looming ever darker over us.
- Phil Philips, London
How life changes. My grandparents met in Kings Road Chelsea in a fish shop over a hundred years ago and my mother was born in Markham Square where this couple lived. In those days I think it was about four families in four rooms and poverty was rife. I wish they were all alive to see what has happened to Chelsea now. As my grandmother once said this generation did not invent Kings Road- it was always there!
- Joan Battershill, Mitcham Surrey
