Tributes have been paid to a ‘bubbly’ mother who died after being held hostage and shot in her own home on Coronation Day.
The victim, who has been named on floral tributes as Hayley, passed away in hospital on Monday afternoon.
Detectives have launched a murder probe after the armed standoff at the house in Dartford, Kent on Saturday as residents pay tribute to the mother-of-two.
One local, who didn’t want to be named, told the Sun she was a ‘bubbly and lovely girl’ with two young kids.
They said: ‘It’s an awful thing. We’ve been neighbours for a couple of years.
‘She was lovely, really bubbly and lovely girl. Always nice.
Priory Road in Dartford, Kent, remains on police lockdown with cordons and a crime scene
The property in Dartford where neighbours reported hearing gunshots
‘Saturday we could see something going on in the garden. They tried for hours to talk him down, it was ages and ages.
‘Three or four ambulances came. They tried for three or four hours to save her before taking her away.’
The 29-year-old suspected gunman is in a critical condition in hospital after being shot himself.
Neighbours reported hearing gunshots after police officers and a trained negotiator stormed the terraced house on the day of King Charles III’s Coronation following reports of a ‘disturbance’.
Locals claimed ‘pandemonium’ broke out after an hour-long standoff – before up to 10 gunshots were heard.
Some said the woman had been ‘held hostage’ by a man at the rear of the property, with one local woman describing the scene as ‘chilling’.
She added: ‘I was in the house and my husband and two girls were out – they couldn’t get back home. I went out and was told, ‘Get back – you must stay indoors’. I went to the garden where I could see more.’
Around an hour after police entered the property, the witness said she heard gunshots before seeing a person carried out on a stretcher.
‘It was pandemonium’, she said. ‘I heard five gunshots – a pause and then another five.’
The female victim suffered gunshot wounds believed to have been caused by a handgun and was rushed to a hospital in London, where she sadly died on Monday evening.
Her assailant was also taken to a London hospital with a ‘firearms injury’ and remains in a critical condition – though it has been reported that no police weapons were discharged during the incident.
A spokesperson for Kent police said: ‘An investigation into a firearms incident at a property in Dartford is now being treated as murder after the victim died in hospital.
Police are now treating the woman’s death in Dartford, Kent, as a murder
The woman’s home remained cordoned off in the days following her death, and forensics teams have been seen entering the property
‘Kent Police was called at 12.40 pm on Saturday 6 May 2023, to a report of a disturbance at a property in Priory Road.
‘Officers, along with a trained police negotiator, attended and attempted to engage with a man inside the address. Firearms officers also attended and whilst they were at the scene, a 36-year-old woman suffered injuries believed to have been caused by a handgun and she was taken to a London hospital.
‘The victim died from her injuries shortly before the evening of Monday 8 May.
‘The man, aged 29, was also taken to hospital with a firearms injury and he remains in a critical condition. He is being treated as the suspect and an investigation is being led by the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate.’
The woman’s home remained cordoned off in the days following her death, and forensics teams have been seen entering the property.
Kent Police has now referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) for further investigations.
A spokesman for the IOPC said: ‘We have received a referral from Kent Police and we are assessing the available information to decide whether any further action is required.’
They are appealing for anyone with information to contact them on 01474 366149, quoting reference 46/80922/23.
DailyMail
