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Tributes have been paid to the “kind, capable and charming” police sergeant who was shot dead in the custody suite in Croydon.
Sgt. Matt Ratana was known as a “big guy” to his colleagues, “big in stature and with a big heart,” said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick.
He was a “charming man, highly respected by officers and staff, by the public, including suspects he arrested or treated in custody,” it added.
The 54 year old shot inside Croydon custody center just after 2 am on Friday. The 23-year-old suspect is believed to have shot himself and is still in critical condition at the hospital.
The New Zealand-born cop worked as a custodial sergeant in Croydon
Ratana was a great rugby player and played for him London Irish after arriving in the UK since New Zealand in 1989.
Most recently he was a coach at East Grinstead Rugby Club, where his friend Paul described him as “a great loss”.
He told Sky News: “He helped a lot at the club.
“He was inspiring, so vibrant, so bubbly, larger than life. It will be a great loss for the club. The man was a machine.”
Paul saw him for the last time the night before he died and said that he “had to leave soon and was looking forward to it.”
Sergeant Ratana joined the force in 1991
Sergeant Ratana, leaving behind a partner and adult child from a previous relationship, joined the Met in 1991 and worked in the capital from Westminster to Hackney to Hillingdon.
He was promoted to sergeant in 2010 and moved to Croydon in 2015, where he worked in custody.
Commissioner Dick added: “He was well known locally. And he will be so fondly remembered in Croydon and missed there, as well as at the Met and the rugby world.”
His colleagues from his time in Hackney, east of the capital, described him as “the centerpiece of community policing.”
A note on the flowers outside the Croydon Custody Center
The local force tweeted: “For years this man, this hero, this captain was the centerpiece of community policing in Hackney. He shaped the lives of many. Be they victims, suspects or colleagues.
“Sergeant Ratana was the best. He left, but he definitely didn’t forget.”
New Zealand Commissioner Andrew Coster said: “While Sergeant Ratana spent most of his career in the UK, anyone serving here will always be part of our New Zealand Police whānau.
“We send our condolences to his friends and family here and abroad, and to his colleagues in the Metropolitan Police and across the UK, who will deeply feel this loss today.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Home Secretary Priti Patel and London Mayor Sadiq Khan were among the politicians who paid tribute to the policeman.
The Prime Minister said: “My condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the police officer who was killed in Croydon last night.
“We owe a huge debt to those who risk their own lives to keep us safe.”
Lissie Harper, whose husband, PC Andrew Harper, was murdered while on duty in Berkshire last year, said of Sergeant Ratana’s death: “This is devastating news.
“No person should go to work never to return. No human being should be stripped of his life in a barbarous act of crime.”
“Another hero has been taken from us with wanton violence.”
John Apter, National President of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said in a statement: “This is absolutely devastating and heartbreaking news that a colleague from the Metropolitan Police has been shot dead.”
“The police are a family and when we lose one of our own in such a devastating way, it affects us all.
“The dangers that police officers face every day are very real and unfortunately, as we have seen, they can result in officers making the ultimate sacrifice.”
His murder was described as “senseless” by Commissioner Dick, who said a murder investigation is underway, as well as an investigation by the police watchdog, the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC).
