Cheryl Gabriel-Hooper killing: Investigation into police forces is completed
An investigation into two police forces over their handling of complaints by a woman who was shot and killed outside her Newport home has been completed.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct said that it had finished its investigation into West Mercia Police and Staffordshire Police, and how the two forces handled incidents reported to them by Cheryl Gabriel-Hooper before she was killed in January last year.
But the findings will not be released until after the trial of her estranged husband Andrew Hooper, which is set to take place next month.
Hooper's case was opened at Birmingham Crown Court in December last year, although he was too ill to attend the hearing.
The defendant, now wheelchair-bound, was treated at Royal Stoke University Hospital but had recently been transferred to the hospital wing of Winson Green Prison.
Ms Gabriel-Hooper, 51, was shot in the neck outside her home in Farmers Gate, at around 11pm on January 26. Paramedics were called but were unable to save her.
Neighbours were alerted by the sound of gunfire and the screams of the victim's daughter.
A fund that was set up to help support her has raised thousands of pounds. Ms Gabriel-Hooper had only recently moved to the area.
A trial date has been set for June 3. The case is expected to last at least a week.
