Police contact with a woman before her death - Norfolk Constabulary, February 2019

In February 2019 the ambulance service informed Norfolk Constabulary that a woman had self-inflicted gun wounds. Officers arrived and found the woman, unresponsive, with a shotgun. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

In the months leading up to this, Norfolk Constabulary had received several reports concerning the woman, relating to non-violent domestic arguments about a strained relationship.

Our investigators gathered a number of records relating to the contact Norfolk Constabulary had had with the woman before her death in order to establish whether there were any known risks.

We also examined the force’s procedure around firearms licensing to see whether there was any issues in this case, or any learning which could be provided to the force.

There was no indication that the woman had access to the firearms on the property, and no direct indication made to the police that she was at high risk of self-harm.

Based on the evidence available we found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings, or had committed a criminal offence. We completed our investigation in June 2019.

During our investigation, we identified some areas of learning for the force around recording and sharing relevant information on police systems to ensure it can be accessed by and/or flagged to the relevant people: the officers responding to a previous incident in January did not appear to be aware there were firearms linked to the address, and the firearms licensing unit were not made aware of the incident.

After reviewing our report, the force confirmed that it would take a number of actions to implement the learning from this case, including reminding officers and staff of the importance of firearms checks on domestic incidents, persons and addresses.