The victim of a “trolley rage attack” in a Marks & Spencer store has died - meaning the suspect could face murder charges.
Michael Buckley, 60, suffered a broken hip and wrist when he was knocked to the ground in a busy branch three days before Christmas.
A 30-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. But the injured man’s condition deteriorated, he suffered a heart attack and on Tuesday he died at Princess Royal University Hospital in Farnborough.
Mr Buckley was a frail man who stood around 5ft 4in and weighed just 8st. Suffering from severe ear problems, he wore two hearing aids and had retired from his long-term gardening job at a cemetery due to ill health.
Following the death of his wife, Irene Christie, a model and actress, two years ago, Mr Buckley lived alone, grieving for her and caring for her macaw, Max, which had appeared in For Your Eyes Only alongside Roger Moore.
A neighbour said: “Michael wouldn’t say boo to a goose - he was very frail. And I heard that in the Marks & Spencer when this woman asked to go past he said, ‘OK, just a minute’ - but she then barged into him.
“I heard it wasn’t just once, but she came back for another go. Then he fell to the ground. And after he went to hospital he never came back.” The incident took place in the last few days before Christmas, when stores were crammed with customers. Mr Buckley was shopping at a large Marks & Spencer food hall at around 1pm, in the Glades shopping centre in Bromley, south-east London.
Witnesses told police the woman at the centre of the inquiry shoved him with her trolley, knocking him to the ground.
A member of staff said at the time that Mr Buckley was left sprawled on the floor in agony after the “moment of madness”.
The employee said: “She just seems to have got enraged that he did not move out of her way quickly enough and rammed into him.
“It is everyone’s nightmare. We have seen it so many times in the food hall, people are just so impatient these days.”
Another neighbour said Mr Buckley had looked “like a strong breeze would blow him away”.