Everything we know about Leeds man killed after 'confrontation with police' in Spain

A convicted robber from Leeds has reportedly died in a police shoot-out on the Costa del Sol.

Who is the deceased?

Sean Hercules, 39, has links to Osmondthorpe, Harehills and Holbeck.

What is believed to have happened?

Hercules was reportedly wanted by Spanish police after he fled the scene of a car crash in the resort of Puerto Banus, an upmarket party destination near Marbella.

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Police tracked him down to an aparthotel in the town of Estepona, near Malaga, and he was shot dead when he resisted arrest. According to widespread reports, he is believed to have been armed.

The Foreign Office confirmed the death of a British national in Spain, but did not verify his identity.

Did he have a criminal record?

Hercules was convicted of shooting a man with a sawn-off shotgun outside the Warehouse nightclub in Leeds back in 2006, when he was 27. The attack happened during a night of 'Wild West' violence in the city centre the previous year.

He was also jailed for his role in a robbery at a post office in Gipton in 2001.

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Hercules had originally faced a charge of attempted murder in relation to the Warehouse shooting, which left victim Nathaniel Stapleton with more than 250 gunshot pellets in his body.

However, his guilty pleas to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibited weapon were accepted at his trial.

Judge James Stewart QC told him: “The citizens of Leeds who come out of nightclubs in the early hours of the morning are entitled to believe they live in a civilised society, not the Wild West.”

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