Police in shooting inquiry test gun

DETECTIVES hunting the killers of Constable Patrick Dunne disclosed last night they were examining a gun similar to the one used in his murder. The scientific tests were being carried out on a 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

A man arrested in Leicester on Thursday, who was stopped for a traffic offence, was yesterday transferred to a south London police station, but was given bail later.

Three other men arrested in connection with the murder investigation were released on police bail, the Yard said yesterday. PC Dunne, 44, was shot dead on Wednesday night in Cato Road, Clapham, south-west London.

PC Dunne had gone to an address in Cato Road to give advice to a couple involved in a domestic dispute. He heard gunshots and was just leaving the house when he was shot at several times by three men emerging from the house opposite.

PC Dunne was struck by one bullet which tore open one of the main arteries carrying blood from the heart. Doctors think he died instantaneously. Police believe he was 'desperately unlucky' to be hit by a fatal shot fired from 30ft away.

Three men were arrested a day later in Stockwell, south London. The Yard said: 'The three men arrested have been released on police bail pending further inquiries and will return in a month's time.'

Police named the second victim of Wednesday night's violence as William Danso, 31, a married father of four. Scotland Yard said Mr Danso, born in Ghana, who worked as a security guard at pop concerts, had been shot. Initial reports that he had been stabbed as well were incorrect.

Mr Danso, 31, who lived apart from his wife, was a small-time drugs dealer who had been under police surveillance, but not at the time of the shooting. Cannabis worth several thousand pounds was discovered in the garden of his flat.

Two rewards worth a total of pounds 55,000 were offered yesterday for information leading to the conviction of PC Dunne's killers.

Elizabeth Dunne, the dead officer's mother, left hospital yesterday where she had been kept in for observation after she collapsed and complained of chest pains.

Sandra Barwick, page 21