Man’s death from police bullet ‘sheer bad luck’
AN inquest jury considering the death of a Birmingham man shot dead by a police officer has been told it was “sheer bad luck” a bullet hit and killed him after ricocheting off a bed post.
The head of firearms training for West Midlands Police, Simon Pemberton, said it was “totally understandable” that Officer N’s gunshot did not hit Trevor Smith’s torso directly as intended.
Officer N, granted anonymity by the court, fired a single shot at the father-of-two during an early morning warrant at his flat in Lee Bank, near Five Ways, on March 15, 2019.
After shouting at Mr Smith to show his right hand, which wasn’t visible behind the duvet he was holding, Officer N said he saw Mr Smith “shuffle” and raise his arm, holding a “black item,” which he believed to be a gun.
The officer said he “flinched and took a conscious shot”.
The inquest previously heard from a ballistics expert that the bullet hit a bed post 90cm from the ground, deflected and hit Mr Smith in the chest. An imitation firearm was later found at the scene.
Asked if a “highly trained officer at a distance of five metres” would be expected to miss a target by such an extent, Mr Pemberton said: “Having been in this situation myself, I can say yes.
“When everything is running through your mind at quick time and that flinch, yes. The torso hasn’t been hit but it’s totally understandable in my summary.”
Rajiv Menon, the barrister representing Mr Smith’s family, put to him that Officer N’s shot was “wayward”.
Mr Menon said: “If the bullet hadn’t hit the bedpost, had missed by even a millimetre, it either would not have hit Mr Smith at all or it would have struck him in the leg somewhere.
“Of course, I am not downplaying the undoubted stressful nature of the situation that arose here – for all concerned, Mr Smith and the officers – and also that Officer N had a split second or two in order to make his decision to discharge his firearm.
“I accept all of that, but the reality remains that this was a wayward shot that in fact hit Mr Smith by sheer bad luck.”
The jury previously heard it was around six minutes from the time police entered the flat until Officer N firing the fatal shot.
Mr Pemberton was asked about the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC), held before the police raid on Mr Smith’s flat.
Giving evidence, Clive Bell, part of the safeguarding team at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, said he “couldn’t conclusively say” he had shared information with those present of Mr Smith’s suicide attempt two months before.
Mr Pemberton said that since Mr Smith’s death, minutes from all MARAC meetings are now routinely made available to authorised police staff on a shared file on the cloud.
(Proceeding)