Woman shot by police 'was armed only with an air pistol'
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An inquiry has been opened after police shot a woman who was reportedly carrying only an air pistol.
The woman, named only as Jenny, 31, and understood to be from London, was wounded by a police marksman at a remote cottage near Harperrig reservoir, 12 miles south-west of Edinburgh, on Saturday evening after ignoring requests to put down a weapon.
The woman, who was in a stable condition in hospital, was only the second woman to have been shot deliberately by a British police officer. Six years ago, a woman aged 32 was seriously injured when police shot her after she opened fire.
A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "The full post-firearms incident procedure has been established and a senior independent officer from another police force will be appointed to oversee the investigation. It would be inappropriate to comment further on the incident."
The woman was believed to have called police at around 5pm on Saturday, stating that she had shot her mother. Tony Carruthers, who owns the cottage at which the woman was shot but was not present at the time, said: "The police spoke to me at six o'clock, and I told them exactly what it [the weapon] was. They knew it was just a soft air pistol. They knew there was nobody else there. They have to get to the bottom of this."
The cottage and a nearby farm, which were sealed off by police, were visited yesterday by Ricky Gray, Assistant Chief Constable of Strathclyde, who is heading the inquiry.
Mike Yardley, a firearms expert, urged the Police Federation to take action to prevent unnecessary killings of suspects, claiming that most incidents involved replica guns.
"Armed police confronted with a person who apparently has a gun and won't put down their weapon are trained to shoot to stop, not to wound," he said. "They are trained to go for the centre of the body, to incapacitate the central nervous system. If they were armed with the right sort of weapons such as a carbine with optical sights they could shoot to wound. They could use Tasers or baton rounds or pepper spray. It's time for a national debate on whether in certain circumstances it's appropriate to shoot to wound."