Culcheth is used to the usual village drama: parking grumbles, takeaway queues and somebody insisting the traffic was never this bad years ago. What unfolded on Saturday night was something altogether more serious. Anthony Grainger, 35, from Bolton, died after being shot once in the chest during a pre-planned Greater Manchester Police operation in a Culcheth car park.
The inquest, opened at Warrington coroner's court, heard that Grainger worked as an odd-job man. He had been in a vehicle stopped by police at about 7.20pm. Officers from Greater Manchester Police's specialist operations branch gave him first aid, but he could not be saved.
Whatever the background to the operation, a death during police action demands more than vague reassurance and official phrases polished until they squeak. The Independent Police Complaints Commission, the IPCC, is investigating not only what officers did at the scene, but also the planning, decisions and implementation of the operation itself. That is exactly the level of scrutiny required.
Three men, David Totton, 33, and Robert Rimmer, 26, both from Manchester, and Joseph Travers, 27, of no fixed address, later appeared at Manchester magistrates court charged with conspiracy to commit robbery between 24 January and 3 March. Two were arrested in Culcheth on Saturday night, while the third was arrested in Manchester on Sunday. They were remanded to appear at Manchester crown court.
The police operation was thought to be linked to a violent robbery two weeks earlier, in which a balaclava-wearing thief was alleged to have assaulted a shopkeeper and threatened others with a machete. Those allegations are plainly grave, and nobody should pretend officers confronting potential violence have an easy task. But the severity of a suspected offence does not erase the need for a transparent account when someone dies.
Residents described a frightening scene, with people being moved to safety and the area suddenly feeling, in one resident's words, like something from a film. Jessica Brown, 15, said she and friends had been in Village Pizza when they came outside and smelled gas in the air. She said she saw a black van head towards the car park and later heard shots. For a place like Culcheth, where a dramatic evening usually involves the chippy running out of gravy, the shock was profound.
Grainger had previously been a defendant in a multimillion-pound drugs trial, though he was cleared of conspiracy to supply drugs. He had admitted handling stolen cars in connection with that case and received a 20-month prison sentence. Tributes were also left online by people close to him, a reminder that legal history and police investigations do not cancel the grief of family and friends.
Deputy Chief Constable Ian Hopkins said specially trained family liaison officers were supporting Grainger's family and that Greater Manchester Police, Cheshire Police and the IPCC would conduct a thorough investigation. Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg adjourned the inquest pending the IPCC's findings. James Donaghy, the IPCC's deputy senior investigator, said the investigation was expected to take time because of the significant number of officers involved.
It may be a long process, but it needs to be a careful one. Culcheth deserved clear answers then, and the fact that this happened more than 14 years ago does not make the questions any less important.