Photo shoot sparked real gun drama

Photographers who specialise in covering wars and strife in troubled corners of the world may expect to find themselves staring down the barrel of a loaded gun toted by an armed officer who means business. But it happened to Martin Elliott - and he was only doing pictures for a feature on a student filmmaker in Derby.

A drama graduate from the city's university had written, directed and starred in a gritty feature film about a hitman and a drug pusher who take revenge on a brutal gangster . Called No-one Is Innocent, the film was being premiered at an independent cinema. A feature writer at Martin's newspaper - the Derby Evening Telegraph - arranged for some of the cast to go along to the office to be photographed.

"As soon as I heard the outline of the story, I suggested I took the actors across the recreation ground by our office to a canal bridge over a cobbled street," explained Martin.

"I thought I could get some grainy shots with a dramatic feel. When we got there, I asked the main guy, who was carrying a holdall, if he'd brought any props and he pulls out a massive, very realistic 'Dirty Harry' magnum.

"I thought : 'Oh My God, that looks a bit dodgy if anyone sees us'. But I looked around - it's a very quiet area - and there wasn't anyone about, so I went up on a nearby road bridge and shot down on to the actors standing on the cobbled area. There was traffic whizzing behind me and I'm shouting down to the guy to hide the gun more…to put it in his jacket pocket and just take it out slightly. But he can't hear me because of the traffic behind me and he's waving the gun about a bit.

"I decided to go under the canal bridge with the actors and doing some semi-silhouetted shots in there.

"Just as I was finishing, we all hear: 'Come out of the tunnel with your hands in the air'.

"Just for a second, I thought it was a joke, and then the realisation hit me.

"The voice continued: 'Walk out slowly with your hands in the air. Don't make any sudden movements'.

"All the students are looking at me. And I'm looking at them.

"I tell them to walk out slowly. I've got my hands up with my camera in my hand and I'm thinking as we come out of the shadows 'this is going to look like a gun'.

"The guy with the gun doesn't seem to realise how serious this is. I'm saying, 'Put that gun down' but he's walking out with it almost in a shooting position.

"When we come out of the tunnel, we see four officers from the armed response team pointing guns at us and wearing body armour. Behind them there's loads of police cars and all the road's been blocked off.

"They tell us to turn to the wall and they're shouting, 'Throw your weapons down'. I'm shouting back: 'This isn't a weapon, it's a camera'. They're shouting: 'Throw it down'. I'm shouting: 'Do you know how much this costs? I'm not throwing it down'."

The police quickly realised they weren't dealing with real criminals, but were none too pleased when Martin couldn't even produce his press ID.

"I'd left it in my car in the office car park because we'd only walked five minutes away."

So the police had to ring the newspaper to check out Martin's story.

"I got a real ticking-off from the police," said Martin. "They said: 'Do you realise we've got police helicopters out and armed response units on the way from all over Derbyshire?'"

It turned out that a public-spirited passenger on a bus going over the road bridge had looked down and seen the actor brandishing the gun and thought it was for real.

Back at the office, the newsdesk had been alerted that the armed response team had been called out and reporters were excitedly checking out the story hoping for an exclusive Page One splash until word filtered through that their own photographer had sparked the drama.

"As anyone who knows me will tell you - it could only happen to me," said Martin.

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