The families of victims of the Nottingham attacks have accused Nottinghamshire Police of failing to warn them that a mentally ill man was fixated on the case, leaving them feeling “kept in the dark” about a danger they say they should have been told about.
The families’ complaint
The family of a student killed in the Nottingham attacks has criticised the police for not warning them that a mentally ill man was fixated on the case, according to Sky News. The student was one of the victims of the attacks carried out in Nottingham in the spring of 2023, when a man killed three people and injured others before being shot dead by police.
The family’s criticism centres on what they say was a failure to share information about the man who went on to carry out the attacks. They say they were not told that he had been fixated on the case before he did so, and that had they known, they might have been able to take steps to protect themselves or respond differently. The phrase “kept in the dark” captures, in the family’s view, the frustration of learning after the event that there were warning signs they were never given.
The aftermath of the attacks
The Nottingham attacks in June 2023 shocked the city and the wider country. The suspect killed a university student, a school caretaker, and a security guard, and injured several others over the course of a day in the city centre before being confronted and killed by armed officers. The killings prompted an immediate outpouring of grief and anger, and in the years since there have been questions about what the police knew before the attacks and whether anything could have been done to prevent them.
The focus of the families’ latest criticism is not on the attacks themselves, which have already been extensively examined, but on the period after the attacks – on what the police told those who had been affected, and on whether they were kept fully informed about a man who appeared to have developed a fixation on the case.
The questions about information sharing
When a violent incident has taken place, the question of what the police knew beforehand is always sensitive. Equally sensitive is the question of what the police tell those affected afterwards, especially when there are concerns about a person who might pose a risk. The families are saying that in this case they were not given information they needed about a man who had become fixated on the case – information they believe they had a right to know.
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The complaint raises difficult questions for Nottinghamshire Police about how they balance confidentiality, operational considerations, and the needs of victims and their families for information. It also sits against the background of wider scrutiny of police responses to mental health and the pathways that can leave dangerous individuals without the intervention they need.
Why it matters
This is important because it speaks to the trust between the police and the people they are meant to protect. When a family says they were kept in the dark about a person fixated on a case that took the life of one of their own, it strikes at the heart of what victims and survivors can expect from the authorities. If the information could have made a difference – if a warning could have changed what happened, or could at least have allowed people to prepare emotionally and practically – then the failure to share it becomes something more than an administrative oversight.
The complaint is also a reminder that the fallout from violent attacks does not end with the immediate aftermath. Families continue to seek answers, and sometimes those answers reveal gaps that should have been filled sooner. The families of the Nottingham victims have already lived through the worst thing that can happen to a family. For them, being left without information afterwards compounds the sense of injustice.
What happens next
The families have made their concerns clear, and Nottinghamshire Police will now have to respond to the claims in a way that addresses both the substance of what they are saying and the wider question of how they communicate with those affected by serious violence. The force has previously acknowledged the impact of the attacks and has said it is committed to learning from them.
Whatever the outcome of any inquiry or response, the families have ensured that the question of what was known, and what was shared, remains in the open. For victims’ families, that is itself significant: the demand for transparency does not expire when a case is formally closed.
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