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.

Aaaand that covers a good % of people on tfls services any given day, doesn't it? How often do you think that is really used in anger, OP?

Better arrest every teenager ever who says look at me again and I'll kill you, every dating / married couple who joke about patios and irritating quirks, every tra on x, everyone who plays video games.

To the posters saying OP should have reported it to 101,have you tried getting through to that number lately? I tried a couple of months ago,and gave up after being kept on hold for over an hour. Just saying.....

@BlackFriYay yes tell the police. Good lord there's a lot of nutcases about. He may do exactly the same to someone else and at least you've reported it.

It's always been difficult to get through, but surely you're not suggesting the alternative should be 999 because of it?

This makes me so sad and equally as bloody angry. If I saw that I would 100% report it and would've probably tried to take a discreet picture of him, if I could. Unforgivable and I hope you never encounter anything like it again.

Your poor son and you 💐

If legislators and people in positions of power had to ride busses and were confronted with this shocking behaviour then maybe the world would be a better place.

You’re the one being obtuse.

You did tbe right thing.

It be tapped with a card they can track him to where the card is registered and check the bus CCTV.

I hope you are ok OP.

Many years ago I knew someone who did this as a joke, with a toy gun. He actually went to prison. He had no intent to harm, and was a kind and funny guy. For some reason, the evening he did it, he was behaving out of character. This was a long time ago, and our world is very different, but clearly someone reported him, and it was followed through.

It’s not just about whether he goes on to shoot somebody though. Which I admit is pretty unlikely - but still a risk.

What this is about is whether it’s acceptable for a man (or anyone but let’s face it, it’s usually men) to go around intimidating and scaring women (or anyone but let’s face it, it’s usually women) by threatening to shoot them in the face in front of their small child.

Answer - it isn’t acceptable, hence why threatening to kill somebody is a criminal offence. Because whether you see it through or not, you don’t get to go around scaring people and leaving them momentarily afraid for their life, safe in the knowledge they won’t report or that people will just put it down to ‘nutters being nutters’.

The amount of people saying it would be a waste of police time to investigate it are wrong, either this will prevent a much more serious offence further down the line or it will show this man that if he goes around threatening to kill women/people there will be ramifications. And bloody good.

There are an awful lot of uninformed people on here and I suggest unless you’ve knowledge of this you refrain from posting and putting off people from reporting incidences that they have every right to. You’d feel differently if he had said this to you in front of YOUR toddler.

British transport police. See it say it report it. Not sure if it works for buses though.

Would BTP be helpful?

https://www.btp.police.uk/

sorry, I just checked and they're only trains.

Someone reported on a local fb page that there had been an angry/ distressed person at the local train station and they were worried they would jump in front of a train. In the end they got on the next train but acted aggressively on the train and hit/assaulted more than one passenger. I think iirc they were asked/forced to get out at the next stop.
Virtually all the comments were sympathetic, saying they thought the person must have MH issues and hoped they got the help they needed. That in itself was not unreasonable but no one mentioned that it must have been pretty frightening or traumatic for the people on the receiving end of their aggression!

I was on a busy tube train in the early 90s and the chap opposite me announced very loudly, " I've got a gun!"

He looked like any other commuter.

No one batted an eyelid and he announced even louder, "I said, I've got a gun!" and still there was no reaction so he just had to sit there like a lemon whilst absolutely no one took any interest.

It was bizarre.

Unfortunately dow you you've encountered a nutter or dope head who mistook you for a bloke invading his space so in his mind he needed to threaten you to stay away.

I doubt the police will be that interested without other witnesses and the sad fact that there are man care in the community it's walking among us.

Victims are often seeing as ‘learning aids’ or a doorway for the perpetrator to ‘get the help they need’, unfortunately.

YABU this was not a 999 issue. I’m not sure what the police will be able to do at this point. I assume they’re not going to be inclined to do anything. It would’ve probably been better to have persevered with telling the driver, because the driver could have called them to deal with it there and then. It does sound like he was unwell.

No. You are wrong. You need to read what qualifies an offence as a threat to kill (or just read one of the many posts upthread that explain this)

Ask the bus company for cctv footage - which you can as you are in the footage

The police will do this.

You were correct to report him. And the police should be taking it seriously, he maybe be a harmless nutter but why take the chance?

They don’t do buses, they cover all the “tracked” public transport - tube, overground, trams, even the cable care.

But there should be a local transport police team in each borough that includes Metropolitan Police who do cover the bus network. You should be able to find the right local Metropolitan transport team here: https://www.met.police.uk/a/your-area/safer-transport-teams/

A person who without lawful excuse makes to another a threat, intending that that other would fear it would be carried out, to kill that other or a third person shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.

Offences Against the Person Act 1861

Only worry is the amount of time and whether the footage will be held by the time the op has her interview and then they process it through to a request

Wow that's horrible, I'm so sorry. Do you know what happened when you left, did they arrest him? If not they bloody should have done 💐