Manchester police suspect family feud, detectives demand more time

Greater Manchester Police have said that a family feud has come to the fore under an investigation of the shooting of two unarmed policewomen on Tuesday allegedly shot by the 29-year-old Dale Cregan.

On Thursday, Garry Shewan, Assistant Chief Constable underplayed speculations of gang warfare. He said, “We have two feuding criminal families and we need to investigate the role that feud took in determining the outcome that we’ve seen in the last six months.”

Sir Peter Fahy, Greater Manchester chief constable, said it was not clear whether more explosive devices were present at the scene where police constables Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone were killed on Tuesday. It may be noted that the two policewomen were shot dead after going to an empty council house in Abbey Gardens in Hattersley to investigate what seemed to be a routine burglary.

From police investigation it has been confirmed that a gun has been found, and that one of the officers’tasers was found on the ground at the scene. Witnesses reported that a number of shots had been fired and a grenade thrown after the officers arrived.

Sir Peter Fahy warned of the threat from an age-old feud between gangs in the area and said the police force had issued Osman warnings, notices given to people under threat of being murdered or seriously injured, to a “large number of individuals”.

Detectives have been trying to piece together the final moments of the dead officers, while forensic teams are ransacking the area, where the policewomen were killed, for clues.

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