Jury out in Brighton shooting inquest (From The Argus)

Jury out in Brighton shooting inquest

1:53pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in News

A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the inquest into the death of a wanted man who was shot by police in Brighton.

Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley told the jury she was withdrawing the verdict of unlawful killing before they began their deliberations into the death of Michael Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick, 49, received gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen in Rock Place, Kemp Town, Brighton, on February 10 last year.

He was pronounced dead a short while later at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The inquest, sitting at Brighton Magistrates' Court, heard that Fitzpatrick was wanted in connection with a string of armed robberies in the Mid Sussex and Brighton and Hove areas.

DNA evidence placed him at the scene of a robbery at Santander Bank in Church Walk, Burgess Hill, on January 21, 2011, the jury was told.

Mrs Hamilton-Deeley told the court there were no areas of conflict to be resolved and that the jury had been able to see how each person's recollection of what had happened on that day could be corroborated from one witness to the other.

She added that the firearms officer, known only as C8, who fired the shot had had to make a decision in two to three seconds at most.

She said: "You must bear that at the forefront of your minds when you consider how he acted. You must decide whether he was in genuine fear for his life and whether he reacted due to that, for his colleagues and the public at large."

She told the jury she was withdrawing the verdict of unlawful killing because she said it was clear from the evidence that C8 did not unlawfully kill Fitzpatrick.