How six-hour police manhunt for ‘gun-carrying concertgoer’ led to massive drugs bust – as chilling footage captures the arrest

Chilling footage has captured the moment armed police in Manchester detained a man after they were tipped off that he planning to attend a crowded concert with a gun. 

Superintendent Paul Walker from Greater Manchester Police appeared in Tuesday evening’s episode of Manhunt on Channel 4 after having received a worrying piece of intelligence.

The force had learnt that a man named Olushola Watson was in possession of a firearm and planned on attending an event at the Albert Hall – with a capacity of nearly 2,000 people – later that evening.  

This meant the squad had six hours to intercept Watson and potentially prevent any harm to concertgoers in a time-sensitive mission that was dubbed ‘Operation Bure’. 

Surveillance officers were quickly deployed around an address in Moss Side that was linked to Watson so they they could monitor his comings and goings covertly.

They also began to track his phone so officers could follow Watson’s movements around the city in the hours before the concert was scheduled to begin. 

After discreetly tracking Watson for a number of hours and deploying armed officers around the venue, they realised that the suspect had picked up three other males from different addresses. 

The group appeared to be heading towards the city centre, where Albert Hall is located, with Supt Walker evaluating whether to give his team the order to strike their car or not. 

‘You’ve got to be really focused on what you’re doing because ultimately, you’re making really important decisions, he said. 

In the gripping documentary, Supt Walker was seen communicating remotely with a team of armed police, who were tracking the 4×4 Mercedes that Watson was travelling in, as the countdown to the concert began. 

As the car continued to drive towards the venue, Supt Walker gave his team a code red signal. 

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one of the officers said: ‘As soon as you hear that phrase, you switch on, you prepare yourself, you check your kit again and again to make sure everything is right because in a very short period of time, you could be making life-changing decisions. 

‘Everything comes down to those few seconds.’ 

Bodycam footage showed how multiple police cars closed in on the Mercedes before cops approached the passengers while holding their guns up.

They were heard shouting ‘Hands, hands, show me your hands’ before one of the officers smashed a window on the passenger side of the vehicle and ordered the men inside to open the car doors. 

The video showed GMP officers pulling two men out of the car and restraining them with handcuffs.  

 Detective Inspector Simon Ackers, who was heading up the operation, said: ‘See normally it’s strike, arrest, I’m going home now. But now I’m waiting see if they’ve got something.’

While all four men were arrested for the suspected possession of firearms, cops quickly discovered no firearms were found in the car or any of the properties associated with the suspects. 

Instead, police searching Watson’s address found class A drugs before arresting him for possession with intent to supply. 

He was later sentenced to three years and six months in prison. 

DI Ackers said: ‘If the public knew the detail of what we analyse before we start an armed operation, I think they’d have 100 per cent confidence in what we do.

‘Innocent people are killed through criminal use of firearms, our information was that he was going to be armed so that’s what we managed on that day.’ 

Supt Walker added: ‘If we don’t follow the intelligence and something happens, we would be rightly criticised.

‘From a public point of view it can only be positive, I think it shows how seriously we take this type of offending and this type of threat.

‘By conducting operations like this, which seeks to militate the harm before it happens, we can prevent someone from becoming a victim. That’s what the public wants us to do and that’s our job ultimately.’