Ann Sanderson, 37, was shot in the car park of a department store in Sevenoaks after armed officers were called out to reports of a woman seen with a gun.
Her next-door neighbour, Vivian Bain, of Bethel Road, Sevenoaks, described her as a "kind and lovely" person, she asked..

"How could they kill her outright?
Couldn't they have shot her in the arm rather than kill her?"

Another neighbour, Victor Mayes, said he knew Ms Sanderson as "Tosh".

"When she first came here about nine years ago she was a little reclusive and a little guarded and in time she started to loosen up."
He said her death had left local residents extremely shocked.

Ms Sanderson, who worked at a guitar string factory in Sevenoaks, died in the early hours of Monday June 11 2007.

An IPCC statement said Ms Sanderson was pronounced dead at the scene.

She was the first woman to have been shot dead by UK police for nearly 27 years.

A single, anonymous floral tribute has been left at the spot where she died.



A [whitewash] investigation into the shooting is being carried out by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) . The IPCC said a firearm* was recovered at the scene, but would not comment further on exactly what it was.

(*Miss Sanderson was later found to be carrying little more than a toy 'BB' pellet gun.)

The Independent Police Complaints Commission IPCC Has made no comment on the incident since June 2007 and has still not answered the question;

Why did Ann Sanderson have to be killed outright?


Sources at the Sevenoaks district council have described the IPCC lack of response as 'strange' but refuse to discuss the matter on the record.