Killing brings Bradford closer

By Anna Browning
BBC News, in Bradford

Shock at the killing of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky has put the spotlight on a West Yorkshire community left reeling by the tragedy.

Sadness, solidarity and sympathy marked the funeral procession

As the funeral procession carrying the mother-of-three made its way from the spot where she was killed to Bradford Cathedral, there was a very real sense of sadness, solidarity and sympathy in the city centre.

About 400 officers lined the route to remember one of their own, and hundreds of members of the public stopped in tribute to the trainee officer and out of respect for her family.

While they waited for the cortege, the mood was reflective. It was no time for words.

A two-minute silence was observed nearby in the Kirkgate shopping centre.

'Moment of madness'

"We are a close-knit family," said one policeman, "and while I didn't know her you can only be touched by the tragedy of it. We have all been very affected by what's happened."

Another said: "I feel so sad for her children. And while you know danger can be part of the job, this kind of thing is still so unexpected. It's so tragic."

From the site of the killing in Morley Street, the horse-drawn carriage moved off to an intermittent bell heard across the city, headed by eight police motorcyclists and accompanied by four police horses and the funeral party.

Officers from every UK force attended the funeral

Her colleagues stood to attention, heads bowed for minutes, while their luminous police jackets marked the journey.

Not until the "at ease" calls that could be heard at intervals along the route did the officers lift their eyes.

The cortege stopped for a moment outside Bradford Central police station, where 10 pallbearers and a police drummer joined them.

Shabbir Ahmad, 57, who lives yards from the scene of the killing, told how he was at home when his 14-year-old son came in from school to say something had happened outside.

After years of living in London, he cannot believe it should be in Bradford that such a thing happened on his doorstep.

Collective grief

Taxi driver Sajid Khan said: "People have stopped going out at night again. We were just recovering from the riots five years ago and people were just beginning to come back to the city centre.

"Everybody feels Bradford has a bad name because of it."

It was a question which preoccupied the local radio station - what had happened to Bradford's image and would it recover?

Crowds bowed their heads as the funeral cortege passed

But for the community itself, some feel that its collective grief over the past two months has brought locals closer together and healed rifts.

Michael Habergham, who joined the hundreds of others on the streets to pay his respects, said in the immediate aftermath of the killing that people had "rallied around".

"In a strange way I think it has brought people together, the different people in the community," he said.

Shabbir Ahmad agreed. "This has affected all of us," he said.