A PAIR of PCSOs disarmed a suspected gunman who moments earlier had knocked on a couple’s door and said “this is a stick-up”.

Now Marcin Kozak and Kuy Harrison have been handed a Chief Constable’s commendation for their actions last October.

Mr Kozak, who in 2017 became Swindon’s first Polish-born PCSO, told the Adver it was a massive surprise to have been nominated for the award.

“That was just one of the incidents within so many incidents we are attending on a daily basis,” the 39-year-old officer said.

Police had been called to Okus Road on October 29 to reports a man armed with a knife and replica gun had told residents of one home it was a stick up, adding he had scratched cars in the street and had not taken anti-psychotic drugs to treat his schizophrenia. Edward Stirling, who in March was jailed for five years, had previously taken a family hostage.

Mr Kozak had been sent to the scene in his custody van, ready to pick-up the suspect once he was arrested.

But the PCSO and his colleague turned out to be the ones to bring Stirling in. “I saw my colleague on the other side of the road. shouting to someone to raise his hands. Then I saw this man no more than five or seven metres away from him just walking towards my colleague.

He said: “I jumped out of the van and we started talking to him, asking if he had any weapons. He produced this quite big bread knife. Kuy kept him occupied so I was able to grab this knife.”