Man jailed for shooting at police

Dean Stanbury was cleared of three counts of attempted murder

A man who shot a policeman and fired shots at two other officers on a busy street as he fled has been jailed.

Dean Stanbury, 21, of Kingswood Road, Leytonstone, east London, opened fire after he discovered the officers were keeping him under surveillance.

The father-of-two fled brandishing the gun in front of children and parents.

He was found guilty of wounding with intent and a firearms charge at the Old Bailey and told to serve at least six years of an indefinite sentence.

He will only be released when he is deemed no longer a threat to the public.

Stanbury was cleared of three counts of attempted murder by the court as the jurors were not sure that when he shot at the officers, he had intended to hit them.

'Intending to frighten'

The court heard that Stanbury shot at Det Con Joseph Vellin through the window of the officer's car and hit him on the shoulder.

When pursued by two other officers he began to run through a residential area and in front of a school.

He allegedly shouted "I'm gonna kill you" before firing shots at them.

Sentencing him, Judge Gerald Gordon said: "The fact is that you fired six shots on the streets of London on a June afternoon in a residential area in which there were in fact a number of schools with children and people collecting them."

It was "amazing" that the officer was not seriously injured in the incident last June, he added.

The gunman must have been intending to frighten the pursuing officers, he said.

Stanbury, who had previously convictions for robbery and attempted murder, was under surveillance suspected of handling stolen keys, the court heard.