The police shooting on the M62 is the latest in a spate of police shootings in Huddersfield that have coincidentally all happened around this time of year.
The man shot dead on the M62 by police has been named locally as Mohammed Yassar Yaqub, a 27-year-old father of two.
West Yorkshire Police said they were acting on information they received over a criminal possession of a firearm.
The others were Alistair Bell in Kirkheaton on December 27, 2010; Robert Dixon in Golcar on December 27, 1994 and Ian Bennett in Rastrick on New Year’s Day 1992.
In all the previous cases inquest juries decided the police were justified in taking the fatal shots.
Alistair Bell, 42, was shot dead after firing several shots at police officers using an unlawfully held handgun.
The incident unfolded outside Bell’s home in Cockley Hill, Kirkheaton, on the evening of December 27, 2010.
Firearms officers were deployed and surrounded the house for several hours with negotiators brought in to contact Bell.
But officers told how they came under ‘sustained fire’ from Bell over a ‘prolonged period.’
Bell – who had previously served a long jail sentence – was repeatedly told to surrender and that no-one had been injured, but he shouted abuse at the officers saying he wanted to go out in a ‘blaze of glory.’
The court heard that police fired three shots in a final confrontation and two of them hit Bell and killed him.
Coincidentally, the house where Alistair Bell died is just 200 yards from where killer Alfred Moore shot dead two police officers, Det Insp Duncan Fraser and Pc Gordon Jagger, in 1951. Moore was later hanged.
In the early hours of December 27, 1994, Robert Dixon was shot dead by police in Golcar.
The 44-year-old, known as ‘Cowboy Bob’ because of his Wild West fixation, was fatally injured on the doorstep of his bungalow on Maple Avenue by a police marksman after officers were called out to investigate reports of a man firing shots nearby.
Mr Dixon had been on a night out at the Golcar Entertainment Centre on Boxing Day before firing two blanks from a replica gun as he made his way home.
A member of the public who heard the shots had phoned 999 shortly after midnight, describing how Mr Dixon had been seen on the street with a gun.
According to evidence given during his inquest, Mr Dixon was asleep with his wife 55-year-old wife, Maureen, when two armed response vehicles arrived at Maple Avenue.
Officers shone a light into his home and ordered him to come out.
Mr Dixon opened the door but ignored orders to put his hands up.
According to the police, he raised what looked like a silver revolver and said: “I’m going to blow you away.”
He fired two more blanks at the officers before the marksman fired four shots in response. Two hit Mr Dixon.
The gun Mr Dixon had been holding was later found out to be a blank-firing imitation.
A verdict of lawful killing was returned by an inquest jury in Bradford.
Ian Bennett died on New Year’s Day 1992 after he was shot three times by a police marksman.
An inquest held in July the same year found police were justified in shooting him at his Sherburn Road flat on Rastrick’s Field Lane estate.
The 34-year-old was shot by an armed officer after brandishing guns out of his window at police.
All were later found to be fakes.
The verdict bitterly disappointed Ian Bennett’s family but police chiefs say it proved they acted properly on the fateful night.
The Rastrick incident unfolded after a Brighouse taxi controller dialled 999 after a terrified driver reported his cab had been attacked by a sword-wielding customer.
Mr Bennett, who had been drinking heavily, was spotted by police officers pointing a gun out of the window of his flat.
Armed police were alerted and within minutes of arriving started to move their van in front of the flat.
Mr Bennett was shot after appearing to point another replica shotgun at armed police.
Dramatic footage taken on a camcorder by a neighbour recorded the fateful moment he was shot.
A police van was seen to move in front of the flat with a bright torchlight shone up at the window.
Police were heard to yell at him to put the gun down and then the fateful shots were fired.
