Man shot in arm by police after refusing to leave taxi

ARMED police shot a man through a taxi window after he did not respond to repeated warnings to get out of the vehicle, a witness has said.

The suspect suffered an injury to his upper arm or shoulder and was taken to hospital following the incident in Bishop Auckland, County Durham yesterday.

Durham Police said a man was shot after officers received reports of a suspect being seen with a handgun.

Police forensics officers were at the scene and a white tent has been put up next to a parked people carrier-type taxi. A witness, who was in his garden when the local taxi pulled up at temporary traffic lights, said: “I saw four or five police cars come.

“Six or eight armed officers got out and they surrounded the taxi and started shouting very loudly for the passenger to get out.

“He was resisting, shouting obscenities.

“This went on for a while, there was at least six or seven times they warned him, saying get out of the taxi.”

The witness said: “The police were not pussy-footing around.

“They shouted, ‘This is your final warning, if you don’t get out we will shoot’.

“He didn’t get out, and ... bang.” The witness, who did not want to be identified, said the taxi driver managed to get out of the vehicle with his hands up and fled to safety prior to the shot being fired.

The witness said the man was shot once through the taxi window, which shattered, and he was dragged out by police.

“He was writhing in agony,” the local said. “But he was still effing and ‘c-ing’ at the police.”

“They ripped his top off straight away and tended to his wound and I think there was a bit of blood, it looked as if it was his shoulder or arm.”

An ambulance was called and paramedics worked on him at the scene for around 30 minutes, the local said.

The man even tried to get up off the stretcher, to the point he was warned he might have to be strapped down, the witness said.

“I could even hear him shouting in the ambulance,” the resident said.

The incident came as a huge shock to people living on the quiet suburban estate.

Durham Police said the Independent Office for Police Conduct will investigate.