A stranger threatened to "shoot" me today when I was with my child. was I being unreasonable to call 999?

[BlackFriYay]

I was on my way to collect DC from school, toddler was with me on reins. The seats were full so we went upstairs where there was only a few seats left, next to other passengers.

I sat on the nearest one and put toddler on my knee, I didn't pay any attention to who I was sitting next to as i was sitting sideways with my feet in the aisle and my back to the person occupying the window seat. Toddler was squirming a bit and wanted to get down so as soon as another double seat became available we moved across there.

A man sitting in the area we moved from started playing loud music through his phone, some daft parody song on repeat.

As our stop approached I got up, lifted the little one and was walking towards the stairs, past the strange bloke with the music. As I passed him he said not to ever sit next to him again or he'll shoot me in the face. Confused as hell, I looked up as we got to the stairs to see if he was talking to me and he was. He then said "oh is that a woman?" IE me, then added "never mind I'm still going to do it" whilst making shot gun gestures toward me.

I couldn't get down the stairs quick enough and tried to tell the driver what had happened but he could barely hear me through the plastic. I didn't want a scene I just wanted to get as far away from the prick as I could.

In a panic I called 999 which I'm not sure was the right thing to do or not, perhaps 101 would have been more appropriate. They've made an appointment to come and see me at home on Tuesday which is the earliest appointment they have.

I asked whether they're going to make any attempt to look for the man as he seems dangerous threatening lone women with children. They said they'd circulate his description and If any officers see him they will talk to him?!

Do you think that is sufficient? Am I blowing this way out of proportion?

I felt so, so vulnerable and scared but they don't seem to think it's anything major.

This sounds like he was mentally ill to be honest.

He likely is mentally ill, that doesn't make him any less frightening when he's threatening to shoot me infront of my small child. Nor does it make what he did any more acceptable.

Me and DS are not collateral damage in the process of getting him the help he needs.

I am very serious, he says anything like that to the wrong bloke or group of blokes (or violent females) he will get his head kicked in on the bus, he needs to be flagged up to whoever is responsible for his care, the police have lists of people on CTO`s etc. they probably already know who he is, a few posters have already mentioned well known local "characters" who are known to have mental health issues? As far as I am aware London police have stopped responding to "mental health incidents", that would mean serious incidents involving threats, waving knives about, smashing things, threatening the public, they expect the care teams to be more proactive and involved in dealing with these things instead of phoning police every time someone gets agitated, that is my reading of it, happy to be corrected though. As other posters have said already, the police are going to do zero about this from the standpoint that you were threatened, if it was me I would ask about to see who supports mentally unwell people in the area and give a few of them a call, it is now a protection issue for a vulnerable adult (the guy on the bus) IMO.

A good rule of thumb IMO is that if someone is sitting with Weird Al (I think he still tours actually) loud on their headphones, DON`T sit next to them, why marinade yourself in their illness/drama/aggression? I take it no one else was jumping up to give you a seat on this bus?

The man is clearly ill, as you already know. This indicates that his threats have no substance at all. He probably doesn't even remember you. So please don't let this affect you anymore.
We've all heard the phrase 'Loony on the bus' (and I know that's not a nice word to use) and this is who you encountered. It isn't worth expending any more energy on this.
May all your future journeys be trouble free and let's hope this man gets the help he needs.

Good post, good advice.

The Nottingham murderer was mentally ill.
By your reckoning his status as known to the police for being a bit mad meant he was no threat either. We sadly know now he very much was.

Any potential threat is a potential hazard. The police are there to protect us. So if there's a potential threat it's their job to look into it.

There is no indication in the OP’s posts that the man was mentally ill. And while mental illness is far too often unfairly demonized, being mentally ill in no way means you cannot be a danger to others.

Maybe this wouldn't be the case if the police took threatening behaviour like this seriously.

He wasn't playing music when I sat down. He started that once I'd moved.