Police shoot and kill man in another standoff

[David Guyatt]

More flatulent Rozzer-speak via their best pal, Murdoch's Sky News

Just to repeat it was the police who shot and killed him.

Gunman Dies After 16-Hour Police Stand-Off

5:26pm UK, Monday January 24, 2011
Peter Sharp, Sky News correspondent

A man who apparently shot himself in a Luton park after a 16-hour stand-off has died - and police have confirmed one of their marksmen may have fired his weapon


The gunman is treated at the scene on Leagrave Common

Officers had been negotiating with the man in Leagrave Common since he was discovered with a firearm at 8.30pm on Sunday night.
Armed response officers traced the man to the park after a 999 call to report a man in Wauluds Bank Drive with a gun.
Witnesses, who believed the man had a sawn-off shotgun, reported hearing a shot at around midday and saw the man lying on the floor.
Bedfordshire Police have since confirmed the man has died.
The force has also confirmed one of the police marksmen involved in the operation may have fired his weapon.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has been informed.
They have got an oxygen mask on him and a drip. An air ambulance has landed on the playing field nearby.
Eyewitness to the shooting
A police spokeswoman said: "He has discharged his weapon and it may be that one of the police officers has also discharged a weapon."
Armed officers carry Tasers, baton guns, an automatic pistol and a rifle and it is believed one of the weapons may have been discharged at around the same time as the shot was fired.
Efforts were made to resuscitate the man.
Speaking at the time, an eyewitness said: "There was a gunshot. The man is now lying on the ground. He is surrounded by armed police and paramedics."
Describing the scene, he continued: "They have got an oxygen mask on him and a drip. An air ambulance has landed on the playing field nearby."
The man, estimated to be in his late thirties or early fourties, was dressed in dark clothing and was sitting cross-legged on a football pitch when witnesses first saw him.
"There is a black man sitting near one of the goalposts with what would appear to be a shotgun pointing to his head," an eyewitness told reporters at the time.
"He has got the butt of the gun, if that is what it is, in his lap and the barrel underneath his chin."
Between 15 and 20 officers, including armed officers and specialist negotiators, worked through the night at the stand-off.

The dead man was sitting cross-legged in a park with a shotgun muzzle pegged beneath his chin.