14 DAY TRIAL // Two Manchester police officers were attacked after being called in at the scene of a burglary. 13 bullets were fired at them before a grenade was detonated. Neither survived the attack.
The women have been identified by Greater Manchester Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahey as Fiona Bone, 32, and Nicola Hughes, 23. Constable Bone had been with the Manchester PD for 5 years, Yahoo News informs. She was in the middle of planning her wedding, and was going to send out wedding invitations.
Colleagues described her as a "calm, gentle woman." Her partner, Nicola Hughes, practiced karate and was "always smiling, even after a night shift," grieving friends said.
The policewomen were sent to an address in Hattersley, in the British Greater Manchester area. Someone had called the emergency number to report a burglary at a private residence. Soon after the attack, the man responsible gave himself up to police that was arriving at the scene, The Examiner reports.
The gunman is 29-year-old Dale Cregan, one of Britain's most wanted criminals after being linked to similar crimes. The police were after him since the murders of David Short, 46, and his son Mark, 23, earlier this year.
Officials had a £50,000 ($81,000, €62,000) bounty on Cregan's head before the incident. Cregan had murdered Mr. Short at his home in Folkestone Road East, Clayton, Manchester, and shot his son in a nearby pub.
A book of condolences was set up by the Greater Manchester Police, in an effort to enable the officer's loved ones to pay their final respects.
"A long and dark shadow has been cast across Greater Manchester and my thoughts are with the officers’ family, friends and colleagues,” Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan's message to the mourning families reads.