A petty criminal with terminal cancer who walked out of hospital to kill a police officer died in a British prison without getting his wish.

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Details about John Bellamy's hours on the loose in Durham before he was arrested were revealed at a court hearing when charges against him were formally dismissed, the Times of London reported.

Bellamy, who had been told he had only a few weeks to live, got out of the hospital in June with help from a brother and cousin. When he was free, he produced a bag full of metal parts that he assembled into a handgun.

He became enraged when his cousin opened a can of beer.

After he was dropped at a supermarket in Brandon, his home village, Bellamy walked the streets brandishing his gun. Police, deploying a helicopter, took him into custody a few hours later.

Bellamy died four weeks later.

"Boom, boom. I'm going to take out a copper before I die," he reportedly told his brother and cousin during one of their visits to the hospital.