The Suzuki Swift driver who died in a hail of bullets off the M5 yesterday was killed with five bullets – and five more missed him and peppered his car, it was claimed today.
Police are still to name the suspect gunned down after being ‘boxed in’ by three unmarked cars as he tried to speed off towards Portishead in Somerset.
Witnesses told how several marked and unmarked police cars pinned in the red Suzuki Swift after it left the M5 before armed officers fired a hail of bullets that left the ageing vehicle’s windows smashed and its car body riddled with bullet holes.
Onlookers said the police fired up to ten times and a source told MailOnline: ‘He was waving his gun out of the window. It took five shots to kill him and there were five more in the side of the car’.
The driver was dragged from the battered car but officers’ attempts to resuscitate him failed and he was left lying dead on the carriageway for more than an hour.
The investigation close to Portishead into the shooting of the driver has entered its second day today (pictured) – but he has yet to be named
The Independent Police Complaints Commission are now investigating the shoot-out and whether officers acted proportionately
An aerial photograph shows the car with bullet holes in the bodywork and shattered glass lying on the tarmac. A handgun can be seen lying on the roof of the vehicle
Witnesses told how armed officers fired a hail of bullets that left the ageing vehicle’s windows smashed and its car body riddled with bullet holes. The victim was left dead on the road after they failed to resuscitate him
A handgun remained on the top of the car for at least an hour today – it is not known if it is the dead man’s or belongs to police
Police were alerted by 999 calls reporting a man brandishing a handgun while travelling on the M5 and threatening another motorist with the weapon.
Following the shooting, drivers passing through the junction just outside Bristol saw his body lying face up in the road, covered in a bloodied blanket.
The man’s identity had not been made public last night because his next of kin were being traced. A post-mortem examination will be carried out today.
Pictures taken minutes after the incident show the man was wearing a pale blue tracksuit with sports socks and white, Converse-style trainers.
They also show a black handgun lying on the top of his car. Last night, a spokesman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating, said: ‘What appears to be a non-police issue firearm was found at the scene and will also be subject to examination.’
There were at least four bullet holes in the driver’s side of the vehicle. The front side window was smashed, and there was blood and glass on the tarmac, as well as a sun hat.
There were also two bullet holes through the rear window.
The shooting happened on the A369, known as the Portbury Hundred, off junction 19 near Gordano service station.
Onlooker David Ellison said: ‘As I came out of Portishead to join the motorway I got stopped and ahead of me were police in the road. I saw them back off from a car and then they surrounded it and shot with handguns – five, six, maybe ten times. They dragged a man from the car to resuscitate him … maybe only ten feet from the motorway. It was boxed in with cars … Two police with hand guns shot through the passenger window.’
Frazer Phillips, from Bristol, said: ‘I was right next to it when it happened and heard about four or five shots.’
Mark De Lancey added: ‘I got up on the roundabout as the police were smashing the guy’s windows and dragging him out.’
The shooting happened five miles from Avon and Somerset Police headquarters in Portishead at about 9.30am. Paramedics were still on the scene three hours after an air ambulance landed on the roundabout.
Last night the scene was being combed for evidence behind screens. The incident is not thought to be terror related.
Police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens cancelled an event at the last minute due to the shooting.
A spokesman for the force said: ‘This has been a fast- moving incident and is now under investigation by the IPCC.’ IPCC Commissioner Cindy Butts said: ‘At this stage we are currently investigating the circumstances of the incident and no individual police officer is under investigation.
‘There would have been a large number of witnesses, given this incident took place on a busy road during rush hour.
‘We would ask that anyone with information that may assist our independent investigation make contact with our investigators.’
Officers in white forensic suits erected a blue and white tent opposite a number of vehicles on the side of the road
Tents have been erected to cover the red car peppered with bullets and the suspect’s body, which was later moved
M5 shooting months after ‘drug dealer’ was gunned down on M69
Today’s shooting has striking similarities to the death of alleged drug dealer Yassar Yaqub, who was killed in a pre-planned ‘hit’ by West Yorkshire Police on the M62 outside Huddersfield in January.
The father of a self-styled ‘Stud Badboy’ and alleged drugs kingpin said the police shot dead his son in a ‘pre-planned assassination’ planned because they ‘didn’t like him’.
In January Yassar Yaqub’s heartbroken mother Safia could not stop crying as her husband Mohammed insisted his son was ‘no risk’ despite a gun being found in his car when he died.
The 28-year-old was shot three times through his Audi’s windscreen by police marksmen after they cornered a convoy of expensive cars in a ‘hard stop’ raid using unmarked vehicles on the M62 near Huddersfield.
One associate said Yassar once tried to shoot him and raked in profits by using drones to send Class A drugs into HMP Armley in Leeds.
He was cleared of attempted murder in 2010 over a drive-by and was shot himself last year but survived.