UK: Police shoot two men in five days
01 May 2001
More shootings, more flawed inquiries, more questions than answers
Police armed response units shot dead two men in separate incidents in the space of five days in July. One had a samurai sword and was shot twice in the chest; the other had a replica gun cigarette lighter and was hit once in shoulder and three times in the back. The killings follow recent controversies in two other fatal police shootings which have seen the Chief Constable of Sussex Police resign over the death of a naked and unarmed man in a botched raid and a "shocking" Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision that there is "insufficient evidence" to prosecute police marksmen who shot dead a man carrying a table-leg through a park.
Derek Bennett, Brixton, 16 July 2001
People demonstrated on the streets after Derek Bennett, a 29-year-old black man, was shot and killed by police on a housing estate in Brixton, South London. Three police officers, two armed, responded to a call from a member of the public who had seen a man with a gun arguing with another man. After a brief search they found the "gunman" on the first floor balcony of a block of flats. Police initially said that he was told to drop his weapon, which he then pointed at the head of a "hostage". One officer fired six shots from a Glock automatic pistol. Mr Bennett's "weapon" was later found to be a cigarette lighter in the shape of a pistol. The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) has called in the Northumbria force to conduct an enquiry.
Several days after the shooting, media reports claimed that Mr Bennett had been hit once in the shoulder and three times in the back. Hundreds of riot police were called to Brixton as people took to the streets again.
This was the eighth fatal shooting involving the Metropolitan force since 1995. Deborah Coles, co-director of Inquest (a voluntary group monitoring deaths in custody and police shootings), said: "the shooting dead of a black man raises questions about the disproportionate number of young black men who die following the use of force by police".
Andrew Kernan, Liverpool, 12 July 2001
Andrew Kernan, a 37 year-old schizophrenic, was shot dead by police officers, who were called to his home by his mother after he had become ill during the evening and calls for help to the hospital had gone unanswered. Mr Kernan was brandishing a samurai sword and following failed attempts to restrain him using CS gas he was shot twice in the chest from close range. His mother described him as "gentle giant" and said: "they shot to kill - twice in the chest when they should not have shot at all. Why did they not shoot him in another part of the body?".
Harry Stanley, Hackney, 22 September 1999 - CPS decides not to prosecute
Harry Stanley was shot dead by police as he made a short walk home from a pub in east London in the early evening (see Statewatch vol 10 no 2). Armed police were responding to a call from a member of the public reporting an Irishman carrying a sawn-off shotgun. Mr Stanley, a 46 year-old painter and decorator, was in fact Scottish and was carrying a table leg his brother had repaired in a plastic bag. Although Mr Stanley had his passport and his brother's phone number in his pocket, the police did not contact the family until 18 hours after he had been shot.
After almost two years of campaigning, Harry Stanley's family are still waiting on the CPS who are reconsidering their initial decision not to prosecute on the grounds of "insufficient evidence". The Stanleys had begun judicial review proceedings, but these are on hold as the CPS is looking at the case again. Irene Stanley, Harry's widow expressed shock and disbelief at the initial decision and said she wants to see the police prosecuted.
James Ashley, Hastings, 15 January 1988 - Sussex Chief Constable resigns
Paul Whitehouse, chief constable of Sussex police resigned in June after criticism from the new Home Secretary, David Blunkett, over the killing of James Ashley (see<