Police Officer Who Killed His Colleague Acted Instinctively, Inquest Told
The inquest that was carried out into the death of a police officer who was shot at by his colleague during a role play exercise in June 2008 was told that the man had acted out of his instinct even though it was a practice session.
This case echoed Keith Tilbury’s who was also shot during the course of a safety demonstration, by a police officer. Tilbury, a police civilian worker, luckily survived. PC Ian Terry, however, was killed as he was shot at with a shot of Round Irritant Personnel ammunition from a very close range. This occurred when a police training session was going on at the site of a factory that had fallen into disuse. The officers in the training were enacting a role play which necessitated the use of live ammunition and it was during this session that the specialist firearms officer met his untimely demise.
The main objective of the session was to disable the suspect vehicle by taking the air out of the tyres and then pulling the robbers, who were also playacting, out of the vehicle. In this scenario, Terry was essaying the role of a criminal who was escaping in a car. It was alleged that the officers involved in this session had received explicit orders to point their shotguns downward throughout the session.
Manchester Coroner Nigel Meadows started the inquest into the demise of Ian Terry stating that the officer who was responsible for his death claimed that he was not aware that it had been a ‘’shoot scenario”. Mr Meadows stated that the officer had acted on his gut instinct as he was faced with the threat in the form of a gun in his colleague’s hand and had, at that precise moment not been aware that he was present in a shoot scenario.
During an investigation was carried out by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the officer said confessed that it was not his intention to shoot his colleague and that he had purely on instinct.
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