Two senior Greater Manchester police officers are investigated for alleged gross misconduct over evidence they gave to the inquiry of a man shot dead by police according to reports on the BBC.
Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood, who authorised the operation in which Anthony Grainger died, and Det Ch Insp Robert Cousen have been or will be interviewed under caution.
The thirty six year old father of two from Lower Broughton was shot dead by a Greater Manchester Police marksman during a planned operation to arrest a group of men on suspicion of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
An officer from the force fired through the car’s front window, and police threw a CS gas canister into the vehicle. They shot out its tyres in an operation that caused onlookers to scream in terror.
No firearms were found in the car, on Grainger, nor at any address linked to him after the incident at the village of Culcheth in March 2012.
In January 2015, the case brought against the then police chief Peter Fahy over the events collapsed after the judge accepted an ‘abuse of process’ argument from his defence team.
The previous year, it was announced by the CPS that the marksman who shot dead the unarmed man would not be prosecuted but that the Greater Manchester Police force would be charged under health and safety law.
The verdict of a public inquiry which finished hearing evidence last summer in the case is expected to publish its findings later this year.
