A tribute from Acting Chief Constable Dave Whatton :-

Ian had many friends within the firearms unit and Rochdale police division, where he had previously served,
and across the force who are all upset at losing him.

Ian was an extremely experienced firearms officer who, in his six years on the unit, progressed from serving on armed response teams to the highest level of specialist firearms operations, having passed with flying colours all of the stringent tests and top-level training expected of officers in this role. This required him to work with colleagues on high-risk operations to combat armed criminals who posed the greatest threat to the communities of Greater Manchester.

Today I have met with Ian's wife and family who, as you can imagine, are devastated by their loss. One of the things that has struck me is the immense pride they all have in Ian that I know to be fully deserved. Ian always went the extra mile to support his colleagues and protect the people of Greater Manchester. As with lots of other police officers, this impacted on his personal life and he could not have been the first-class police officer he was without their love and support.

Everything Ian did, he did to the best of his ability. I have spoken to people who knew and worked with Ian and they all agree that he was something special. He was an incredibly popular and committed member of the team. He was always volunteering to help out, in fact Ian only volunteered to take part in Monday's training course because of his aspirations to become a national firearms training officer in the future and his willingness to help his colleagues.

The two most important things for Ian were his family and his role as a GMP firearms officer, protecting the communities of Greater Manchester. His colleagues will always remember his smile, his wonderful sense of humour and his willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty. His supervisors knew that he was incredibly good at his job.

When he was first seconded to the highest level firearms team within Greater Manchester Police's Tactical Firearms Unit in October 2006, Ian's first day involved a 23-hour shift when he was involved in a strike to apprehend a group of Manchester criminals who had kidnapped and held a man hostage. The actions of Ian and the team meant this man was rescued and five dangerous criminals were caught and are now serving lengthy prison sentences.

That was his first experience working within this specialist firearms team and it set the tone for the demands he and his colleagues faced. Just last week, he was again involved in a complex, dangerous operation during which not only were a number of firearms recovered, but two suspects from an international crime organisation were caught.

We have lost Ian in the most tragic of circumstances, but his family, friends and colleagues can take some comfort in the fact that he has left the streets of Greater Manchester safer and will never be forgotten by those who knew and worked with him.

The IPCC is carrying out a detailed, professional and wholly independent investigation, and I would in no way wish to prejudge the outcome. What I can say is that at this moment in time there is nothing from this incident that would undermine Ian's deserved reputation for professionalism, competency and credibility as a specialist firearms officer. It is really important I make clear that I am not aware of anything Ian did which could be seen to contribute to his tragic death.