I'd have saved Raoul . . police refused to let me

• Police and forensics officers at the site of the shooting, covered with a white tent, where fugitive Raoul Moat died following a tense stand-off with officers which ended in the early hours of Saturday morning. Picture: Robert Perry

Angus Moat urged police to let him speak to his brother, who he had not seen for a number of years, after watching television reports that he had finally been cornered on Friday night.

The gunman's uncle, Charles Alexander, was also rebuffed after offering to assist police negotiators.

Moat, who was wanted for shooting his ex-girlfriend, Sam Stobbart, killing her boyfriend, Chris Brown and seriously injuring Pc David Rathband, told negotiators shortly before his death that he had not had a father and was unloved.

Yesterday, Mr Moat said that as soon as he learned that his brother had been cornered he immediately contacted the police and told them: "You've got to get me up there. I've got to go and speak to my brother."

He insisted, however, that Northumbria Police rebuffed his offer and were apparently concerned that it might unlock memories which would exacerbate the situation.

"Since then I've seen footage of him in his last hours and he was a broken man, he's crying about his lack of family, that he's got no father, that nobody loves him. There were loads of people that loved him," Mr Moat said.

Moat's uncle, Charlie Alexander, also offered to go and reason with his nephew but said police did not get back to him.

Mr Moat said: "If the police are so keen to get this defused and they want to talk him down and negotiate and his family are figuring so prominently in what he is saying, then why didn't they go for that option."

Mr Moat's comments came on the same day that the father of Mr Brown, one of his brother's victims, praised Northumbra Police for their efforts in tracking down the fugitive gunman.

Geoffrey Brown said: "On behalf of our family we would like to thank Northumbria Police and all the other forces involved in trying to bring the hunt for Raoul Moat to a peaceful conclusion.

As we mourn our son and brother, we are aware that the cowardly act of Moat will affect others, including Moat's family who will have to live with his actions for the rest of their lives."

Meanwhile, Mr Moat said although he loved his brother dearly his actions had been "horrendous" and that he felt powerless as he watched the "horror story" unfold on Friday evening.

He explained: "As it was getting dark I thought 'it's all hotting up'. The media aren't helping. You've got this constant round the clock rolling news. It's like, you know, they're working up to what could be a public execution in modern Britain of my little brother."

Mr Moat said that when he heard a shot he hoped a police sniper had injured his brother and that he would be sedated and taken to hospital for treatment. "He's obviously under a lot of stress, psychological pressure," he said. "You know this is my brother who's not a psycho killer like some of the press have been suggesting. He was a person, he's a brother, he's a son, he's a father. He's a man who's had a nervous breakdown."

Mr Moat said he watched as his brother was taken by ambulance to hospital, still hoping he was still alive, but then saw him being carried inside with a blanket covering his face. "I'm thinking they don't cover a live person with a blanket, especially one who maybe has serious head injuries. I was just devastated."

He said he now understands his brother was dead at the scene soon after the shot was fired and added: "I think I'm probably the only person who's ever watched his brother die on national television in the UK, which is obviously horrific."

Two police officers fired Taser electronic stun guns at Moat at 1.15am on Saturday. The Independent Police Complaints Commission are now conducting an investigation into the handling of the stand-off and to discover if the deployment of the Tasers prompted Moat into killing himself or even whether muscle spasm brought on by the Tasers could have caused him to fire the shotgun.

Yesterday, Angus Moat said he believed the Tasers were responsible for his brother's death.

He said: "It's chucking it down with rain, it's a really heavy rainstorm, he's on a grassy bank, he's soaked to his skin in non-water proofed clothing and he's got a gun to his head. If you hit him with a Taser he's going to go into involuntary spasms. If he's got his finger on the trigger, that spasm will involuntarily pull that trigger."

It was a belief shared by one of the fugitive's friends who was brought in to speak to him during the tense negotiations and who said he thought the stun gun triggered Moat to shoot himself in the head.

Anthony Wright, 34, said: "They got me there too late. I could have talked him round. I'm sure those Tasers led to his death. When I got there police said he was calm and they had the situation under control. They expected to be talking to him all night and maybe into the next day.

The negotiator was a real professional and he was stunned that Raoul killed himself.

"Why did it go from that and preparing me to speak to him to him shooting himself? Something must have triggered it - and I'm sure it was the fact they shocked him. Afterwards the negotiator had his head in his hands. He said it wasn't supposed to end like this."

According to reports, one officer said the Tasers were fired to immobilise the suspect, who had been holding a shotgun to his head. Moat also reportedly told officers: "I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a cell."

The BBC yesterday reported that Moat died from gunshot wounds consistent with the weapon he was carrying.

A relative of Moat who has seen the post-mortem examination told the broadcaster there was no mention of marks on his body from the Taser stun guns police fired at him, however there were marks consistent with "rough living".

Nicholas Long, who heads the IPCC said they were already investigating whether police took adequate action following warnings over his behaviour after he left Durham Prison. He said: "The IPCC has now two independent investigations. I have decided there will be one investigation covering both these aspects.

"We will be examining whether correct procedures were followed by Northumbria Police and the detail of how this incident came to a conclusion. A full investigation will now be carried out and we will publish our findings in due course."

WITNESS SPEAKS

A MAN told how he spotted Raoul Moat seconds before police swooped on him.

Ken Branson, 64, was out walking with his partner when he stumbled upon the ex-nightclub doorman seconds before police arrived at his riverside lair.

Describing how he walked across woodland on the edge of Rothbury, Northumberland, he said: "We reached a point no more than 200 metres from the centre when we saw Mr Moat standing alone on the river's edge. He did not look at us and we were no more than 40ft away when we turned off in a different direction when my partner felt that was the fugitive.

"I wasn't so certain but as we got a little bit further away two police vehicles pulled up very, very quickly and armed officers emerged and demanded that Mr Moat drop his weapon. I watched him raise what appeared to me to be a sawn-off shotgun to his head and fall to knees and then I realised it was Mr Moat."

• Police hunt for second weapon left in by Raoul Moatzz

I'd have saved Raoul . . police refused to let me - brother