UK NEWS

POLICE SHOOT MAN DEAD IN VILLAGE

Sunday December 30,2007

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A MAN was shot dead by police on a lonely country road yesterday.

Armed officers swooped on the picturesque village of Stansted, near Sevenoaks, Kent, after receiving reports of a man with a gun.

They shot him at close range, apparently fearing they were in immediate danger of coming under fire themselves.

Last night the victim’s identity was not being released, and there was no information on why he was carrying a gun. It is not thought the man had been involved in a robbery. Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident and no other injuries were reported.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an inquiry into the incident, and two investigators were on the scene yesterday, together with a forensic officer.

A white Mitsubishi car was also seen being towed away by witnesses. Marie Farrell, 25, lives near Tumblefield Road where the shooting occurred. She said: “The first I knew about anything happening was when I heard the police helicopter at around 8am and then a few sirens.

“At about 9am, the police phoned and asked us not to leave the house.

“It’s crazy. We just hope it wasn’t an accident. There’s a big farming community here, and a lot of people have shotgun licences.”

Anne Roberts, landlady of the Black Horse pub in Tumblefield Road, said: “It is all very disturbing. The road has been closed at the top and bottom.

“People living there have been told they can’t leave their houses. They’ve been told that if they do leave, they won’t be allowed back in.

“We don’t know if the man who has died is a local or from outside the area. The police are being very cagey about the whole thing.”

The incident is the second fatal police shooting in the Sevenoaks area this year.

In June store manager Ann Sanderson, 37, was shot dead by police in a car park in the town after they received emergency calls about a woman waving a gun in the air.

The store manager had a history of mental illness. Her death is still being investigated by the IPCC.

Stansted is described by residents as a close-knit, rural village of about 200 residents, where pheasant and rabbit shooting is common.

Earlier this year the pretty village was used as a location for an episode of BBC soap EastEnders when Dot Cotton was taken to visit the area where she had picked fruit as a child.

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