A MAN who wandered around a supermarket clutching a kitchen knife and warning shocked staff to call police before he killed someone is today behind bars.

A MAN who wandered around a supermarket clutching a kitchen knife and warning shocked staff to call police before he killed someone is today behind bars.

Jobless Dante Hall told workers at the Tesco store in Copdock that he had been punched in the face and was planning to retaliate using the seven-inch blade.

The drama unfolded at around 3.30am on Wednesday.

Hall, holding the knife along with a bottle of wine, approached three members of staff.

South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court heard how the 21-year-old, who was clearly drunk at the time, claimed: “I think you better call the police because I'm going to kill somebody.”

When security staff were alerted, CCTV cameras caught Hall, of Galway Avenue, Ipswich, pulling a kitchen knife from his pocket.

Stephen Colman, prosecuting, said the blade had been taken from the store and still had the security tag attached.

Police arrived soon after and arrested Hall.

At court, he pleaded guilty to being in possession of a bladed article in a public place.

Neil Saunders, mitigating, described the episode as “bizarre”.

He said: “I can't imagine what was going through his mind at the time. If he had been planning to do anything with the knife, he wouldn't have told staff to call the police.

“He was sitting on the chiller cabinet when the police arrived but he could easily have walked off.”

Magistrates sentenced Hall, who has previous convictions for shoplifting and has spent time in a young offenders' institute, to six weeks in prison.

He was also sentenced to another custodial term of a combined nine weeks, which will be served concurrently, for three counts of threatening behaviour in relation to the words he used to supermarket staff during the incident.

No order was made for costs due to Hall being out of work.