Shot man 'depressed over wife move'

Police shooting victim 'depressed'

A man shot dead by police in a quiet country village was depressed at the thought of his sick wife being placed in a nursing home, a close friend said.

The man, named locally as Mervyn Tussler, was fatally shot following a three-hour stand-off with police in the village of Fernhurst, near Midhurst, West Sussex.

Armed response vehicles and police dog handlers went to the area after a woman reported seeing a man with a gun in Ash Grove, a sheltered retirement complex run by Hanover Property Management, where Mr Tussler lived.

Mr Tussler, in his 60s, had been told by social services that his ill wife Winifred would have to go into a nursing home, according to his friend, Peter Goodman.

Mr Tussler had been his wife's carer for the past 15 years and was said to be "lost without her".

Mr Goodman, 54, a plumber, said Mrs Tussler had spent around the past four weeks in Guildford Hospital, Surrey, suffering from a urinary infection.

In the past week, Mr Tussler was told that she was not well enough to return to their home in the retirement block in Ash Grove, Mr Goodman said.

"He just seemed to be depressed about Win being in hospital," said Mr Goodman.

Mr Goodman said the couple, who had two grown-up children, were extremely close.