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Robber denies Beshenivsky murder charge
A jury heard today how a gang of armed raiders callously blasted two female police officers, killing one of them.
Pc Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, and only nine months in her role, was shot in the chest as she answered an alarm call with her colleague Pc Theresa Milburn in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005.
Mustaf Jama, 28, admits robbery but denies murder and firearms offences.
Newcastle Crown Court heard his brother Yusuf, then 20, and gang boss Muzzaker Shah, then 25, have already been convicted of murder.
Robert Smith QC, prosecuting, said the shift for Pc Beshenivsky and Pc Milburn was about to end when they responded to a call about the raid at the Universal Express travel agent.
"They were, of course, not to know that before the end of their tour of duty, one of them would be dead and the other seriously wounded.
"The shooting was deliberate, it was callous and unnecessary, and it was done with the intention of killing both officers.
"It was significant that they were both shot in the chest at close range.
"The three men were armed with a 9mm self-loading pistol, a 9mm automatic sub-machine gun, together with a knife.
"They were dangerous men who used violence towards the occupants of the premises.
"They were prepared to stop at nothing to avoid arrest."
Mr Smith said the defendant, a Somali, was as guilty of murder as Shah, the man convicted of pulling the trigger, and his brother.
He invited the jury to suppose that carrying loaded weapons during a robbery meant the gang knew there was a likelihood someone might get shot, "in the heat of the moment".
Jama, wearing a cream-coloured long-sleeved shirt, appeared in the dock flanked by five security guards.
Mr Justice Openshaw ruled that anybody with a close connection to the police should not appear on the jury.
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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