Policeman shot dead during training.

A police officer has been shot whilst on a training exercise in Manchester, England.

A police officer has died after being shot during a training exercise in Manchester.
The officer suffered a serious chest injury and was taken to North Manchester General Hospital, but medics could not save his life.

The incident happened at 11.35am in the Newton Heath area, an industrial part of the city home to several factories.

A statement released by Greater Manchester Police confirmed the details of the accident, but did not explain how the fatal shot came to be fired.

Source: news.sky.com...

By the looks of it, this was in a public place, not a firing range as is the norm.

No word yet as to how this happened, but i bet there will be some heads rolling for this one.

My thoughts are with the officers family, it's hard facing that your loved ones may one day be injured or worse whilst on duty, but you rarely think it will happen during training.

CX.




[edit on 9/6/08 by CX]

My heart goes out to the family.

Why were they using live ammo in a training excercise in a public area? Very strange. Usually it would be blanks, unless one live bullet slipped through. Even blanks aren't genrally used in public areas. I wonder if there's more to the story than what we're being told.

There's some more info on BBC News now as well.

Quote from above source:

It was not immediately clear whether the officer had been shot accidentally by one of his own colleagues.

This is a strange statement. Well, who else would it have been then?? Or are they implying it was deliberate rather than accidental?

They probably whacked him out because he was gonna drop the dime on somebody else, or already had. Things like this are always fishy.

Peace

reply to post by Dr Love


Yeah it has to be suspicious. Getting whacked during training is impossible during live fire exercises.

reply to post by deltaboy


You're right, you totally changed my mind with your post. I think what sealed the deal was the " ". I probably would have added one more " " somewhere else in the post, but one's usually good enough.

Peace



[edit on 9-6-2008 by Dr Love]

I could be suspicious.

For one thing, it doesn't sound like a live fire exercise based on the article and the location of the exercise.

It could however just be a tragic accident, because blanks at close range can be lethal.

Basically, no one not involved has enough information to surmise.

news.bbc.co.uk...


He was killed while officers used "special munitions" designed to stop vehicles containing armed criminals.
The exercise was taking place in a warehouse in the city, an IPCC spokesperson added


The BBC continues with:

The focus of the forensic investigation at the Sharp building was on four cars taped off from the rest of the goods yard.
One of the cars, a grey Citroen Xsara, had its front passenger window smashed, with glass on the ground below it.
The driver's door was open as was the driver's door of the Suzuki Vitara car parked in front.
A bullet-proof jacket, oxygen mask, police helmets and a yellow jacket were on the ground nearby.

So... why if he was killed INSIDE the building, was car window smashed and why if bullet proof jackets were available, why wasn't he wearing one???

Tragic accident, negligence, or something worse?

post by mr-lizard


thescotsman.scotsman.com...

A passing van driver said: "I thought this place was being used as a storage centre. I didn't even know it was being used by the police."


www.teletext.co.uk...

www.theherald.co.uk...

(The Herald again mentions smashed Xsara vehicle)

www.telegraph.co.uk...

Pc Ian Terry, 32, was struck in the chest as he and other members of the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) firearms unit practised in a disused factory on Monday.


Local workers said they were unaware that the site was being used by the police as a training centre.


Hmmm... ?

I'm not sure it matters much if the public did'nt know that the place was used as a training location for the police, there are many low key places used by police.

My concern is how accesible was this place by the public?

If van drivers are saying they thought it was a delivery place, could they have driven in there without being stopped and possibly into the firing line?

CX.

[edit on 10/6/08 by CX]