Murder of Sharon Beshenivsky
| Sharon Beshenivsky | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
14 January 1967 Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 18 November 2005 (aged 38) Bradford, West Yorkshire, England |
| Police career | |
| Department | West Yorkshire Police |
| Badge number | PC 6410 |
| Rank | Police Constable |
PC Sharon Beshenivsky (14 January 1967 – 18 November 2005) was a West Yorkshire Police constable shot dead by a criminal gang during a robbery in Bradford on 18 November 2005, becoming the seventh female police officer in Great Britain to be killed on duty. Another police officer, PC Teresa Millburn, was also shot in the incident, being seriously injured but surviving. Millburn had joined the force less than two years earlier; Beshenivsky had served only nine months in the force at the time of her death.
Closed-circuit television cameras tracked a car rushing from the scene and used an automatic number plate recognition system to trace its owners. This led to six suspects being arrested; three were later convicted of murder, robbery and firearms offences; two of manslaughter, robbery and firearms offences; and one of robbery. A seventh suspect remains at large.
Beshenivsky had been serving as a police officer for nine months. She had previously been a police community support officer (collar #268) with West Yorkshire Police. Having been a constable for just nine months, she was classed as a probationer under the supervision of an experienced colleague.
On the afternoon of 18 November 2005, Beshenivsky and Millburn responded to reports that an attack alarm had been activated at a travel agent on Morley Street in Bradford. Upon arrival the officers encountered three men who had robbed the agent of £5,405; two were armed with a gun, another with a knife. One of the gunmen fired at them immediately at point-blank range, fatally wounding Beshenivsky in the chest and also hitting Millburn in the chest, before all three men made a getaway in a convoy of cars.
Beshenivsky was the seventh female officer to die in the line of duty in England and Wales, the second female officer to be fatally shot (the first was Yvonne Fletcher in London in 1984), and the first female officer to die in an 'ordinary' gun crime (Fletcher was shot during a protest at the Libyan embassy in London).
She had three children and two stepchildren, and died on her youngest daughter's fourth birthday. Beshenivsky's funeral took place on 6 January 2006 at Bradford Cathedral.
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