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Tourist takes “last picture” with slain policeman just minutes before London attack

Staci Martin hopes the photo will find its way to the police officer’s family.
Pc Keith Palmer, London terror attack, Westminster attack

The final photo of PC Keith Palmer, the brave police officer who gave his life to protect Parliament from knifeman Khalid Masood, has emerged.

The selfie-style photo was snapped by American tourist Staci Martin, who hails from Florida, just minutes before the attack unfolded.

She told ABC News: “It’s my first time in London and I see his hat and I’m like, ‘I have to take a picture of him with his hat.’”

“I walked up to him and said ‘do you mind if I take a picture?’ He said ‘no problem’, he was really nice.”

“We got in an Uber not even 15 seconds later, we turned to the corner and this guy came up to the window and was like there was a shooting, there was a shooting we looked over and there was a helicopter and a ton of emergency vehicles.”

Martin explained that after seeing photographs of the officer circulate through the media, she felt “obligated” to share the photo online.

“I feel obligated to make sure they have that. They can cut me out of it, but I just want to make sure they have that of him,” she said.

She posted the photograph to Facebook alongside an eerie timeline of events, according to the news outlet.

“At 1:52 p.m., we were walking passed Parliament and I saw an officer. I liked his funny hat so I asked him if we could take a picture … He was very polite,” she wrote.

“At 2:40 he was fatally stabbed by the terrorist and died leaving behind a wife and children.”

Scotland Yard have confirmed that five people, including Palmer and the assailant, were killed in a terrorist incident near the UK’s Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, March 23.

Another two of the fatalities are believed to be pedestrians who were hit by the attacker as he drove erratically on the nearby Westminster Bridge.

Mark Rowley, Scotland Yard’s top anti-terror officer, said that an additional 20 people have been injured in the attack.

This number has since escalated to more than 40.

WATCH: Mr Rowley addresses the media.

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