Sean Fitzgerald: Inquest jury identifies serious failures in firearms police operation
Sean Fitzgerald, 31, died after being shot in the chest by a West Midlands police firearms officer, known as Officer K, as Sean exited a property on Burnaby Road, Coventry, on 4 January 2019. Sean was not armed when he was shot nor were any firearms recovered from the property. After six weeks of evidence, the jury found a number of serious causative failures in the planning and implementation of the operation.
On 4 January 2019, a search warrant was obtained based on intelligence that a man being investigated by the West Midlands Organised Crime Unit would be present at 56 Burnaby Road, Coventry together with a significant quantity of drugs and cash. There was no intelligence to suggest that Sean Fitzgerald would be present.
Because of intelligence held by police, firearms commanders authorised a firearms operation for a “contain and call out” at the property. It was envisaged that firearms officers would surround the property using firearms to control and contain movement, the entrance would be breached by removing the front door using a chainsaw and officers would then instruct those inside to leave in a controlled manner.
A briefing was held for the twelve firearms officers between 17.15 and 17.34, during which the firearms officers were told that the threat assessment for the officers on contact once in position had been assessed by commanders as ‘medium’.
Officers arrived near to the property 18:21 when it was dark. Two officers, known as Officers K and F went to the back of the property to provide ‘rear containment’. They entered the garden at 18:22:34, and the officers went ‘plate-to-plate, with Officer K facing the property and Officer F covering the rear of the back garden. A chain saw was applied to the front door at 18:22:50. The armed officers did not announce their presence prior to the chainsaw being applied. At 18.22.56, after Officer F had heard a noise and turned his face towards the house, the curtain on the back door moved, and at 18:22:57, the door began to open. The person emerging from the door was Sean Fitzgerald. At 18.22.58, just over half a second after the door began to open, Officer K had fired his weapon, hitting Sean once in the chest. Sean fell to the ground. He was holding a black mobile phone in his right hand. Fast aid was administered by officers and paramedics and a doctor attended, but Sean was declared deceased at the scene. No firearms were found at the property.
Both officers at the back of the house were wearing Body Worn Cameras which were operating at the time and captured events in the back garden, including Sean emerging from the back door.
The jury returned a majority conclusion of lawful killing. They also found a number of serious causative failures both in the planning and implementation of the operation meaning that these failures may have or did cause or contribute to Sean’s death. Those failures included:
- that armed officers at the front of the property should have announced their presence prior to applying the chainsaw to the front door;
- “Officer K and F should have announced armed police on the rear of the premises at the point the curtain moved behind the rear door.”
- “Officers K and F should have turned on their torches at the rear of the property” at the point the chainsaw began to be applied to the front door.
The IOPC had previously investigated the incident and in December 2023 concluded that Officer K may have breached police professional standards regarding his use of force. As a result, West Midlands police have been directed to hold a misconduct hearing which was delayed pending conclusion of the inquest proceedings.
Adam Straw KC, Tom Stoate and Tayyiba Bajwa represented Liam Fitzgerald, Sean’s brother, instructed by Helen Stone of Hickman & Rose.
Media includes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y878ny324o
