AN inquiry has opened into the death of an unarmed dad-of-two who was shot by a police officer in a Culcheth car park in 2012.

Anthony Grainger, 36, was sat in the driver’s seat of an Audi A6 at Sainsbury’s near Jackson Avenue on March 3 when an officer from Greater Manchester Police fatally shot him.

No guns were found in the car.

Police believed Mr Grainger, from Bolton, was going to take part in a robbery.

Lead counsel Jason Beer, opening the inquiry, said: “Officers were taking part in an ongoing investigation, Operation Shire. It was concerned with the alleged activities of a number of individuals, including Anthony Grainger, for allegedly conspiring to commit armed robbery.

“Officers moved to arrest the three occupants of a stolen Audi. Officer Q9 discharged a single shot from his firearm. No firearms or other weapons were recovered from the car or from other occupants or from their homes.”

Following an investigation the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) made 16 critical findings of GMP, including that the force used ‘out of date’ intelligence and selected an arrest plan which posed a ‘high risk to life’.

The IPCC referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service after finding that the officer responsible for the fatal shot, known as Q9, may have committed a criminal offence.

But prosecutors decided not to go ahead with the trial.

A charge for a health and safety offence was also brought against Sir Peter Fahy, who was chief constable of GMP, but it was dropped after police argued some evidence was so secret it could not be presented to a jury.

Three men who were arrested at the scene, David Totton, Robert Rimmer and Joseph Travers, were found not guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery in September 2012 after it was alleged they were in the Culcheth car park to steal cars.

Mr Grainger’s inquest was made a public inquiry by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, and is expected to run at Liverpool Crown Court until April 21.