Man shot dead by police during ‘intelligence-led’ raid in Coventry is named

A man who was shot dead by police during an operation in Coventry has been named by friends as Sean Fitzgerald, 31.

One close friend named only as Ali described him as a ‘very, very good guy’ after he died in the intelligence-led raid on the evening of January 4.

A family member wrote online that she was ‘absolutely gutted’ by his death, with another friend adding that he was ‘one of a kind’ who ‘would be there for anyone’. Friend Cory Brown, 28, claimed that Mr Fitzgerald had previously been in the army and lost both his parents when he was younger.

A woman who went to school with him wrote online that he had a ‘heart of gold’, while the mother of one of his friends called him ‘such a lovely lad’.

Witnesses spoke of seeing over 17 police cars during the Friday night operation, which saw two other men also arrested at the scene.

Officers had executed a warrant at an address on Burnaby Road at around 6.20pm.

West Midlands Police said: ‘One man was shot and pronounced dead at the scene while two other men were detained by officers.’

Fire engineer Karl Lolley, a father-of-two who lives behind the police cordon, claimed he heard ‘four or five’ gunshots after witnessing officers descend on the house.

‘I saw three or four armed police cars turn up. Five to six armed officers got out and they went in the front door. There was some gunshots,’ he said.

‘The next thing you know there’s more police arriving and they cordon off the area.

‘They carry a person out on a stretcher, they put him in an ambulance – the lights on the ambulance were flashing for about half an hour as they were working on him.

‘Then they turned the lights off and they drove off slowly. Obviously they pronounced him dead.’

Investigators from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) will now examine footage from cameras being worn by the team involved as well as local CCTV.

They confirmed they had opened an inquiry after the force reported the fatality during a ‘pre-planned operation’.

Regional director Amanda Rowe said  ‘Our investigation is in its very early stages and we will be working hard to establish what happened.

‘My thoughts are with the man’s family and all of those affected by this incident

‘The next steps will be to view the body-worn video footage and establish if there are any local CCTV recordings.

‘At this stage we are looking at the circumstances of the incident and all officers remain witnesses to our investigation.’