Watchdogs investigate after police shoot a suspected gunman

Derbyshire Constabulary officers were called out just after midnight, at 12.25am, today, Saturday, August 26, after receiving reports of a man believed to be in possession of a gun in Heanor.

Armed officers were sent to the residential area where they found the man who was subsequently shot during a confrontation.

Police cordoned-off Stainsby Avenue, at Heanor, after the incident including one particular property near to a bus stop.

The man who was shot is aged in his 20s, according to police, and he was taken to hospital where he remains in a critival but stable condition.

Derbyshire Constabulary referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which investigates police matters, and the IPCC is now overseeing the incident.

Witness accounts referred to people hearing a “loud bang like a gun shot” in the early hours of this morning.

An IPCC spokesman said: “The IPCC has begun an independent investigation into the non-fatal shooting of a man by police in Derbyshire in the early hours of Saturday, August 26.

“Officers attended an area of Heanor at around 12.30am after initial reports of concern for a man’s welfare, and then of the man in the street carrying a handgun.

“Armed police encountered the man in Stainsby Avenue shortly before 1am and the man was shot by an officer.”

The 20-year-old man is in a critical but stable condition in hospital, according to the IPCC.

The IPCC spokesman added: “Derbyshire police notified the IPCC of the incident and we have deployed investigators to the scene and to post-incident procedures.

“A non-police issue weapon has been recovered at the scene. The man’s family have been contacted.”

Those with information or any witnesses should call Derbyshire Constabulary on 101 quoting incident 16 of August 26.