This section is no longer in use, please click on the links below to view news and sport from:
Victim 'aimed gun at police'
Sep 21 2003
By Amardeep Bassey, Sunday Mercury
Police officers accused of mowing down a suspect who later died in custody claim that they were forced to knock him down after he pointed a gun at their patrol car.
Last week the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) confirmed that Michael Lloyd Powell, 38, had been struck by a marked police car less than two hours before he died.
Eye-witnesses also told how the factory-worker (pictured) had been sprayed with CS gas before several officers beat him with batons and sat on him.
The alleged brutality led to calls for the officers involved to be suspended pending a full PCA inquiry into the incident in Wilton Street, Lozells, on September 7.
News of the incident was broken exclusively by the Sunday Mercury last week.
Now the Mercury under-stands that the two officers, who admit that their car collided with Mr Powell, have told investigating detectives from Northamptonshire they were in fear for their lives.
A source close to the investigation said: The officers have not been suspended because they claim that they acted in self-defence after Powell brandished a handgun.
They say that they saw Powell waving the gun in the middle of the road and that when he saw them in their patrol car, he pointed it at them.
The officers then reversed back up the road and drove at Powell to disable him. It is claimed that the patrol cars window had been smashed not by Powells fist but by the weapon he was holding.
But no firearms were recovered from the scene, leading the officers to suggest that Powell may have handed it over to sympathetic neighbours who had gathered outside.
