Brockley Incident Yesterday

Not sure exactly what happened in Brockley yesterday afternoon, the story circulating on twitter was 'Crazy guy wielding a pitchfork in Brockley has police cars & helicopters after him, lots of blood in the street'. Don't think it was quite a bloodbath,  but what is clear is that  at around 3 pm there was initially some kind of incident with a man threatening people by the row of shops opposite the Brockley Barge on Brockley Road. He then seems to have been chased towards Brockley Station and run across the train lines, leading to trains being stopped. First Capital Connect reported 'Delays of up to 45 minutes between Norwood Junction and New Cross Gate because of a trespass incident at Brockley'.

The police gave chase with the police helicopter twitter account (yes there is one) reporting '1535: Currently over Brockley @mpslewisham searching for male chased by local Officers'. Don't know if he was arrested, whether anybody was injured, or what the alleged weapon was - did anybody actually see the fork? 

Anyway this was all going off right next to Brockley Christmas Market in Coulgate Streeet, where people were sipping mulled wine, buying presents and listening to Brockley Ukulele Group. 'Mike Modular' has posted a sound recording on audioboo that captures the strange soundclash of ukes, sirens and helicopters. This is a slice of sound that sums up early 21st century Brockley (and indeed other areas like East Dulwich and the Bellenden end of Peckham) -  a  pleasant if slightly twee world of cup cakes, crafts and small stringed instruments periodically interrupted by desperation and violence.

listen to ‘Brockley Christmas Market’ on Audioboo

Update Monday: so was this all a big fuss about not very much? According to eye witnesses in comments there was a some kind of altercation by the Brockley Barge, followed by a guy waving a swiss army knife around. Later someone, possibly the same guy, was seen with a garden fork being threatening. Doesn't seem there was blood on the streets , as reported on Twitter, or indeed anybody injured, and as a fork was abandoned at the scene it doesn't really sound like there was a guy wandering the streets of Brockley for 24 hours brandishing a pitch fork. A big police operation failed to find him that day and the next day someone - perhaps the same guy again - was arrested in Brockley, with Lewisham police reporting that 'a burglary suspect that @MPSinthesky assisted us with... was arrested & has been bailed pending further enqs'.  No doubt distressing for some people directly involved and could have ended badly, but to be honest sounds like a fairly routine case of messed up drink/drugs/mental health issues.