It’s two years since Anthony Grainger was murdered by a police marksman using a sub-machine gun, in March 2012 – unarmed and shot at close range, Anthony was hit in the chest with the bullet entering both his heart and lungs as he sat with two friends in a parked car.
The Justice 4 Grainger Campaign is still going strong
Both the other occupants, along with a third person, were tried and later cleared of plotting a robbery.
The family of Anthony have always maintained his innocence, claiming that he was murdered, in what has been termed ‘The memory stick killing‘ and have set up a campaign, Justice for Grainger, in a bid to clear his name and uncover the truth.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report into the shooting of Anthony back in 2013 was ‘highly critical’ of Greater Manchester Police, stating that police ‘intelligence’ was flawed when the firearms officer shot the unarmed dad-of-two.
Wesley Ahmed, of the Justice 4 Grainger campaign was horrified when the Manchester Evening News ran a story this week claiming that he and other campaigners had ‘put a £50,000 bounty on the heads of firearms cops‘ – an apparently unsubstantiated claim by Greater Manchester Police.
Wesley refutes claims made by GMP
In response to these claims Wesley has released the following statement:
“The Justice for Grainger campaign completely refutes the empty allegation by GMP that it is somehow implicated in a threat to the life of GMP firearms officers and condemns the Manchester Evening News for the sensationalist and uncritical coverage of the claims made in court.
“The fact that the police made their baseless claims during a case that has no connection to the killing of Anthony makes their actions even more repugnant.
“The December 9, 2014 edition of the Manchester Evening News carried a front page splash, complete with massive typeset and hard hitting, inflammatory headline: “£50,000 BOUNTY TO KILL POLICE” and underneath “Fears firearms officers could be targeted by criminal gangs
Anthony Grainger
over deaths of Jordan Begley and Anthony Grainger.”
“The actual article, on page five of the newspaper actually stated that this was only a ‘police claim’ before going on to quote the fraudulent claims of GMP with no critical examination.
“The claim is unsubstantiated and unproven. If this threat was real why have GMP not arrested anyone in the two years since they first made them. It is clearly an attempt to smear the Justice 4 Grainger Campaign and those associated with it, as well as giving the court an excuse for refusing to name the police officers involved in the killing of both Jordan Begley and Anthony Grainger.
“There is no evidence at all, two internal GMP memos between staff that talk of ‘rumour’ do not constitute evidence.
“Our fight is about justice and nothing more.”
Here is a video where Wesley tries to find balance with the MEN story.
Small Girl in a Big World 