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The events of Saturday lunchtime are truly shocking. Not only for those who witnessed the incident, but also for people who live and work in Devizes, who don’t expect to see something like this take place in broad daylight in their hometown.
Firstly, my thoughts are with the victim and I hope he makes a full recovery. As you may be aware, a 26 year old man has been charged with attempted murder and remains in custody.
I’d like to thank the members of the public who took action and called the police, and the Wiltshire Police officers who arrived at the scene with considerable speed. It takes a certain mindset to head towards danger where others would head in the opposite direction, and I’m pleased to see their professionalism has been recognised on social media by local residents.
Thankfully, incidents like this are rare in Devizes, and we need to continue our work in the preventative space to stop anyone from using a bladed weapon.
I’d like to reassure residents in Devizes and across Wiltshire and Swindon that serious efforts are being made to address the issue of knife crime by using education programmes and focused deterrents to encourage people to think again before picking up a knife.
We’ve seen how quickly and effectively the emergency services respond when situations like this arise, and we must continue to identify the root causes and make sure all our partners are working together to prevent incidents like this from reoccurring.