Streets quiet after officer shot

But today he lies in a hospital bed, the latest victim of the city's dangerous gun culture.

Pc King was going about his routine duties on Saturday night, targeting car crime in the area.

In plain clothes with Pc Karl Ansell, he identified himself as a police officer to a man who had aroused suspicion in a car park of Bromford Rise flats in Oaklands Road.

The man ran off and the officer, along with Pc Ansell, gave chase for a few hundred yards to the busy A449 Penn Road.

The area is busy, with a Waitrose supermarket and petrol station, a KFC restaurant, ambulance station, Hindu temple and Quality Hotel, all close by.

Three shots were fired at around 10.30pm. Pc King dived for cover and was hit twice in the shoulder before the gunman fled into the night.

Today a man was in custody, arrested yesterday afternoon after an extensive search of the area.

The shooting brought large disruption to the area, with road closures and the Waitrose supermarket among those forced to close for the day.

The area around Bromford Rise, including Oaklands Road, Marston Road and Penn Road were cordoned off. Most had been reopened today, but parts of Bromford Rise were still cordoned off this morning.

For people living in the area, the disruption is sadly all too familiar.

Just four months ago, a gunman opened fire at almost the same spot where Pc King was attacked following a chase between two gangs in cars.

Nearby, there have been other shootings in broad daylight outside the Netto supermarket in the city centre.

Today, there was still a significant police presence in the area, with officers stationed at the reopened Waitrose car park and around the Bromford Rise flats.

One block is still cordoned off with police tape.

Many residents were too scared to speak about the terrifying events of Saturday evening for fear they would be targeted. One couple were willing to speak, but asked not to be named.

The 60-year-old man said: "We didn't know anything was amiss until we heard the police helicopter at around 10.55pm and knew it was something serious because of all the activity.

"It was only at around 8.30am the next day when a neighbour told us that we knew what had happened."

And he said people living in the area were becoming prisoners in their homes.

He said: "I used to go out quite a lot in the evening, but not any more.

"There have been major problems here with car crime, drugs and now shootings.

"It is frightening but what can we do?"

Another man who lives on the estate said he wants to move away for the sake of his children.

He said: "I have two young kids and I don't want to bring them up in a place where this type of thing happens.

"It would be a wrench to uproot them but I am seriously considering leaving the city."

Graiseley councillor and cabinet member for neighbourhoods and community safety at Wolverhampton City Council, Elias Mattu, is deeply worried about the rise in gun crime in the city.

He said: "It is a cause for great concern. It is alarming there has been another shooting in this area and it will send shock waves across the city.

"It is a terrible thing and my thoughts are with the officer and his family.

"The police do a tremendous job, a terribly difficult job and people appreciate that car crime and burglary are going down and that there is an increased visibility."

And Councillor Mattu urged members of the public to shop those they know have weapons.

He said: "It is very difficult to stop gun crime. The community needs to take a lead on this.

People with friends and family who carry guns should realise what kind of trouble it can get them into and take the brave step of reporting them as it could be better for them in the long run."

In February last year, West Midlands Police Chief Constable Paul Scott-Lee hit the headlines when he said police were being threatened with guns on a weekly basis.

He said: "There's not a week that goes by without my firearms people being confronted by somebody waving a gun at them.

"The miracle is that we've not had more people shot. It is happening more and more that people are waving guns about and threatening people."

He highlighted an incident when a gunman phoned police and said he would shoot the first officer on the scene.And last month, it emerged that thugs had made gun gestures with their hands to police community support officers (PCSOs) outside a Wolverhampton nightspot.

In July, on one of the worst nights of violence, a gunman sprayed bullets at a man on a bike in a midnight street ambush.

The 20-year-old, who was shot in Gibbs Street, Whitmore Reans, was left in a serious condition in hospital. Earlier on the same night, a man had fired a hail of bullets at a car on the Birmingham New Road. Fifteen minutes later, a man brandished a handgun at The Goalpost pub in Whitmore Reans, screaming at customers.

Police say most shootings can be traced back to two trigger factors - drugs and 'respect'.

An escalation in gun violence prompted Operation Engage, an elite police team set up to take drugs and firearms off the streets.

More than £100,000 of drugs has been seized along with an arsenal of weapons.

Guns including a 9mm with 17 rounds and a gas-powered firearm which had been converted to fire live bullets have all been seized by officers waging war on gangs.

Senior officers and councillors hailed it as a turning point in the war on the city's three main gangs - the UDC, the Reans Crew and the Park Village Crew.

A series of shootings over the summer, particularly in Whitmore Reans, has left some residents scared to go out after dark.

In August, two shots were fired in Armstrong Drive, Dunstall.

Three hours later gunfire was heard in Sweetman Street, Whitmore Reans.

Today police across the city were coming to terms with the fact that the latest shooting in the city had injured one of their own.

There was a grim determination at Bilston Street amongst Pc King's colleagues today to bring the gunman to justice.

The leader of rank-and-file police in the West Midlands again rejected calls for officers to be routinely armed.

Pc Paul Tonks, chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, said armed criminals would see officers as targets if they knew they were carrying firearms.

Pc Tonks said: "Our concerns and thoughts are with the officer who's been shot and the fact that he will make a full recovery and he's safe and well.

"This awful incident highlights the very nature of the role that police officers undertake at the moment and the dangers they face on a daily basis.

"We have an officer going out to undertake his duties and in doing so, he's callously shot without regard for his role.

"I don't know the officer personally, but having spoken to his colleagues he's a very committed and keen officer who has an exemplary police record.

"A family liaison officer has been appointed and there's a first class investigative team working on this."

"Thankfully, incidents of firearms being discharged against police officers a rare and I can't think of the last time an officer in the West Midlands was shot.

"But when it does happen, it's impactive on the service, locally and nationally.

"No doubt we'll have people like Michael Winner (founder of the Police Memorial Trust) who will do their utmost to stir up the debate.

"But we have to keep it in perspective.

"If every officer was armed as a matter of routine, more incidents such as this would occur because they would be seen as targets."