A man who was hospitalised after being shot by police in Birmingham has been named locally as Sharif Cousins, a former gang member who set up a youth charity.

West Midlands police said a firearm was discharged by an officer at about 9pm on Wednesday, resulting in one man being taken to hospital. Another man was arrested for suspected firearm offences.

The force has referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The officer’s body camera was on at the time of the incident.

Cousins, who is in his early 40s, is thought to have undergone surgery to remove a bullet from his chest and to be in an induced coma. Speaking to reporters at the scene, the IPCC commissioner Derrick Campbell, who is overseeing the police shooting investigation, said he planned to visit him in hospital and meet his family, who were by his bedside.

“We will be carrying out a thorough, independent investigation into this serious incident, as is appropriate when police use potentially lethal force,” he said in a statement. “We are making contact with the man’s family and will ensure they are updated on the progress of our investigation.”

Cousins spent nearly 14 years in prison, including an eight-year term for firearms offences and intent to endanger life, before setting up the New Day Foundation in 2011. He had previously been a member of the the Burger Bar Boys, a gang that has been locked in a feud with a group called the Johnson Crew.

In an interview with the BBC in 2013, Cousins said he had started the charity – which aimed to deter young people from getting “sucked in” to gang culture – because he “didn’t want to be part of the problem any more”.

“It gave me a chance to reflect on what I’d inflicted on the community. I used to make a proper nuisance of myself and realised the way I was living was not the way to be,” he said. “It would have been easier to go back to gang life but I want to make a difference to the place where I live.”

The scene of the shooting on Hereford Close in Frankley remained cordoned off on Thursday morning. Residents told the Birmingham Mail they had heard shouting and a loud bang, and there had been a police helicopter overhead.

“I ran to the front door and saw police cars parked up just yards away,” said one neighbour, who asked not to be named. “There were quite a few officers. An ambulance then arrived. I wasn’t sure what had happened.”

The IPCC said initial information suggested the police had been responding to intelligence received relating to suspected firearms offences. “We have gathered police body-worn video which captured footage of the incident, and this will be reviewed,” it said. “IPCC investigators remain at the scene today carrying out house-to-house inquiries and gathering relevant evidence. A police firearm has been secured. There is early evidence to indicate a single shot was fired by one police officer.”

The police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands, David Jamieson, said he was unable to comment on the details of the shooting.



He told BBC WM radio: “This incident happened about 12 hours ago and it would be premature for us to start talking about details of the incident. But what we do know is that police were called to a particular event in south Birmingham and unfortunately it ended up with one of the people involved getting shot by a police officer.

“There is an independent inquiry that will look into that, but just to put this in context, this is extremely rare, for officers to open fire. In fact, the last time someone was shot by an officer in the West Midlands was actually 17 years ago in June 2000, and it’s been over 20 years since someone was fatally shot by a police officer.”

The incident comes days after figures from the IPCC showed that six people were fatally shot by police in the 12 months to March 2017. It was the highest number since records began in 2005 and double that of the previous year.