Police shoot `unarmed' man

A man shot dead yesterday by police in his flat is thought to have been unarmed. The 39-year-old man was shot once in the chest during the raid on the flat in St Leonards, East Sussex and died shortly afterwards. A woman who was with him was not hurt but needed treatment for shock.

An independent investigation has been launched and will be overseen by the Police Complaints Authority and a senior officer from the Kent Constabulary. But Sussex Chief Constable Paul Whitehouse said he did not believe any of his officers had acted improperly. He said that the raid, by officers from the Special Operations Unit, was part of an investigation into an attempted murder and cocaine trafficking. "None of the officers has been suspended because I have no evidence available to me to make me take that course of action. It is not normal procedure to suspend people in such circumstances," Mr Whitehouse said.The operation involved 30 officers, but it is thought only four entered the room where the man died.