A FORMER drug dealer who shot two police officers is now friends with one of them and together they are working to stop young people from turning to crime.

Leroy Smith from Clapham, south London, is an ex-drug dealer who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting two Metropolitan Police Constables in Brixton, south London, in March 1993.

Mr Smith was in possession of class A drugs and two guns at the time of a drugs stop and search.

He was determined not to get arrested, as he was also wanted for escaping prison and armed robbery.

Speaking to The Voice, he said: “When they pulled us, I knew I was wanted, and knew I would be going to prison.

“I knew if I was caught, I would be looking at double figures in jail.”

Mr Smith who was 25 years old at the time, had gone to Brixton with a friend to complete a drug deal but both men were approached by PC James Seymour and his colleague PC Simon Carroll.

“They said we came out of a drugs spot and they want to search us,” he said.

Instantly Mr Smith says he wanted to get away and recalls shooting one officer in the leg and a second officer “spun around like he was going to run” and “he got shot in his back”.

Former police officer James Seymour clearly remembers the atmosphere changing and told The Voice, he was searching the second man who had dropped some crack cocaine on the floor and as he looked across and saw Mr Smith “struggling” with his colleague.

He said: “As they were struggling on the floor I saw Leroy pull a handgun out of his waistband and hit Simon in the leg, as he fired it.”

At that point, the former police constable remembers “everything slowing down”.

“Leroy fired another shot which hit me about a centimetre away from my spine, ripped across the top of my kidney and ripped out the side of me,” he said.

Mr Seymour shouted out for help but was faced with the agonising decision to try and stop himself bleeding to death.

“I had blood pouring out my sides and I stuffed three fingers in the exit wound to control the bleeding,” he added.

Both police officers survived and Mr Seymour was in hospital for four days and had to go back every day for three weeks to have the wound dressed.

He was then off-sick for six months before returning back to the front line in Brixton.

The day after the shooting, Mr Smith went on the run, prompting an international manhunt.

He fled the UK using fake travel documents and went to Holland and five days later he ended up in New York.

Tough childhood

“I was on the run for like a year, I was arrested in America by the FBI Swat Team,” Mr Smith explained.

In 1994, he was arrested and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the double shooting.

Mr Smith ended up serving 20 years in several high-security prisons across the UK.

During the first five to ten years of his sentence he took drugs because he “couldn’t take it” and was “stabbed a couple times in prison.”

By serving his sentence on the “landing main” he was locked up with members of the IRA and many other known “gangsters”.

He believes the only reason he survived his time in prison was because of the “mutual respect” that was shown between the prisoners.

“You can’t diss no man inside because it will come back on you, it will backfire,” he added.

Mr Smith claims he witnessed many prisoners making deals to  “go home” because they had political links and high-profile connections, all of which he has written about in his new explosive tell-all book titled Out of the Box.

He said: “I’m in this unit as one black man with a gun, and I didn’t have any political links, no army or cartel.

“Everybody was cutting a deal and getting out, except me.”

Forgiveness

The author feels that the criminal justice system is “set up to sting you as a black person” but admits he “learned a lot” being locked up, which helped him turn his life around and become the new man.

He is now a public speaker and mentor and helps stop young people turning to crime and has worked with LA gangs on gang prevention initiatives.

Looking back on his life, he says he was a very different person in the 1990s and was known by the tag named Skeema, and said his notorious reputation across south London, making him “very powerful.”

He said: “I use to import cocaine and I would extort people and rob them.”

Mr Smith told The Voice, his mother was murdered when he was just two years old and he had to live with his grandmother in Clapham, south London, which severely impacted him as a child.

“My gran did the best that she could, but obviously if you don’t have a mum and a dad you’re going to end up going onto the streets and that is what happened to me,” he explained.

His father was a successful business man who lived in Wembley, north London, but Mr Smith believes the early tragedies in his life meant he didn’t stand a chance of a normal life.

By the age of 20, he was turning to crime as a way to survive.

Mr Smith’s book about his life was read by the former officer he shot, who reached out and said he wanted to meet with him.

The unlikely friendship has blossomed into something incredibly powerful and both men now regard the other as a friend.

Mr Seymour says he “never hated Leroy”.

He added: “I just decided rather than have all the bitterness and anger against him, why not make something positive out of it.

“Let’s try and make something good out of something bad.”

Despite facing some backlash from friends and some colleagues Mr Seymour decided to forgive Mr Smith and believes he is a changed man.

Mr Seymour who retired from policing in 2014, said the harsh upbringing and the racial inequalities Mr Smith faced, made forgiveness the only option.

He said: “I looked at Leroy’s life and what happened to his mum, the area he was brought up in and temptation of selling drugs and having all that money.

“The fact that you’re always going to be fighting racism, racial prejudice as a young black man or woman certainly in those days,  

“Even if you go down the route of education you’re never going to make the same amount of money and will always be faced with harder circumstances than white people and that is a fact.”

The book Out of the Box has been updated by the pair and it could potentially be adapted into an on-screen production.

Both men also work together to inspire the next generation to stay away from guns and violence.

Their remarkable story is now shown to all new recruits in the Met as part of their training on restorative justice.

“Every police officer has to watch video the story of restorative justice , with me and James because the probabilities are that he is going to become a victim in the line of duty and he has to know how to deal with it,” Mr Smith added.

Since his release in 2014, Mr Smith has been invited to speak at Oxford University and done several TV and radio appearances.

He was also featured in the BAFTA award-winning documentary Gun No6.

Message to the next generation

Former police officer Mr Smith believes everyone can help steer young people away from crime and wants community led-interventions and projects are properly funded and backed.

“I think it can be resolved easily, there are people in every community who know these youths and who they listen to and respect,” he said.

He is also calling for black men to step up and address the systemic inequalities that plague black communities in Britain.

He said there a lot of black men are “bad for each other but they ain’t bad for the system and that’s the truth.

“The system come and they fold, crumble up and get weak. They ain’t got that energy for the system.”

He has also set up a charity to give back to his local community and in 2019, he was awarded a community contribution award from the Antoin Akpom Achievements Foundation.

As for Mr Seymour, he wants to see more empathy shown to people who make mistakes and said “people can change and people can forgive.”

He retired from policing in 2014 after 30 year’s on service and returned to police driving school in 2016. Mr Seymour currently trains police officers to drive on blue lights, pursuits and surveillance techniques.

“I feel like I have put closure on the whole incident and it makes me feel proud that me and Leroy have helped people to stay on the straightened narrow and have second thoughts about getting involved in crime,” he added.

Retired from policing

In a statement released to The Voice, a Metropolitan police spokesperson said:  

“New recruits initially undertake 17 weeks of extensive and wide-ranging learning. This includes a classroom-based session on how restorative justice can be used to repair harm caused by criminal behaviour and to help deter people from committing further crimes.

“As part of this session, new recruits are shown and then discuss a video featuring former Met police Constable James Seymour who was shot by Leroy Smith while on duty in 1994.

“The video gives new recruits a unique insight into the value of restorative justice from the perspective of both a police officer and a victim, as James explains how embracing the principles of ‘restorative justice’, including meeting and working alongside his attacker, has helped him recover from his traumatic experience.”

Both Mr Smith and Mr Seymour welcomed the use of their story being used as a training tool for new recruits in The Met.

The book Out of the Box is out now.