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PC killed in training was not wearing armour

Sadie Gray
Wednesday 11 June 2008 00:00 BST
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A policeman shot dead by a colleague during a firearms training exercise was not wearing body armour at the time, it has emerged.

PC Ian Terry was playing the role of a criminal in a getaway car for the exercise on Monday morning, during which he was hit in the chest with a dummy CS gas round fired from a shotgun.

Officers from the Greater Manchester force were practising techniques for stopping suspects attempting to flee in getaway vehicles at a warehouse in the Newton Heath area of the city. PC Terry was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

He was killed by a type of cartridge known as a round irritant personnel round, which is designed to hold CS gas and to be fired into rooms or cars. A direct hit at close range can be fatal.

His colleague was believed to have been aiming for the car's dashboard, but somehow hit PC Terry who was sitting in the passenger seat.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an investigation into his death. "We are looking into whether he should have been wearing body armour," a spokesman said. "There's a wide range of things to be looked at." The officer who fired the shot has been suspended from duty during the investigation. He was said to be inconsolable at his colleague's death.

PC Terry joined Greater Manchester Police in 1997. He lived in Burnley, Lancashire, and had been married for seven years. He had a two-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter. His father, Roy, said: "It is a terrible shock. We are all distraught and it is all raw."

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