Thank you for the detailed coverage (Argus, May 23) of the events related to the Hastings shooting on January 15, 1998. It was both fuller and more balanced than that in any of the national newspapers.

It seems extraordinary it has taken two investigations, three trials, £5 million and more than three years to reach a conclusion which most reasonable people could have reached within three weeks or even days.

The police had reasonable suspicions about someone who was described in court as "violent, dangerous and a ruthless drug dealer" and they mounted a raid to arrest him. During the raid the suspect was shot dead by a police marksman acting, or reacting, in self defence.

Of course it is sad, even tragic, that the suspect was shot rather than arrested, questioned and then either charged or released.

But the police had a job to do protecting us and we should be grateful to them for doing it. None of them was guilty of a crime.

Of course, some of those involved made mistakes and no doubt Sussex Police will try to learn from those and improve their procedures. But they need our sympathy and support rather than condemnation.

The real scandal is that we have been deprived for so long of the services of all the officers involved and that unnecessary stress and misery suffered by them and their families has been added to the inevitable misery of the family of the suspect who was shot.

-David Arnold, North Parade, Horsham