Police response and actions following a missing person report - Cumbria Constabulary, January 2019

On 17 January 2019, a woman called Cumbria Constabulary to report her husband was missing. He had left a suicide note and taken his shotgun out with him. With the use of a police helicopter the man was found sitting by a tree in a remote woodland at around 1am on 18 January 2019. Authorised firearms officers and trained negotiators were deployed to the scene. Negotiators spoke to the man for several hours, but he did not engage with them. At 10.53am the following day, the man fired the shotgun once, and died at the scene from his injuries.

Our investigators attended the scene and the post-incident procedure. Ten officers who saw the shot gave accounts, as well as two negotiators and six officers who were in command positions during the operation. We obtained footage from the police helicopters, and over 60 files of body-worn video footage, as part of the investigation. We also reviewed radio transmissions, as well as the incident log and the negotiators’ notes. We consulted an independent expert for advice about the standard of the negotiations.

Our investigation found that Cumbria Constabulary responded quickly to the missing person report and acted in line with their policy in an efficient and organised manner. Officers maintained the ‘contain and negotiate’ strategy for several hours, in what were freezing temperatures. Police-trained negotiators engaged with the man almost continuously for over seven hours. He only responded twice during that time. The negotiation strategy was reviewed several times, with different approaches and enticements introduced to induce the man to put the shotgun down and surrender.

There was no evidence to suggest that the police’s response to the missing person report, or once the man had been found, contributed to his death.

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 July 2019, but waited until the inquest into the man’s death had completed, at the end of 2019, before publishing its outcome.