A FUND has been set up to assist the widow of PC Ricky Gray, shot dead in Shrewsbury last Sunday while trying to protect unarmed colleagues.

PC Gray was shot by rat-catcher Peter Medlicott with a rifle he used for pest control after he had been called out to a domestic dispute at Medlicott’s flat.

His killer then fatally shot himself with his “legally held” weapon.

PC Gray (43) had earned five commendations in his four years with the force.

He married his long-term partner Jenny in a ceremony in Venice last August.

The couple had been together for 16 years. He has two grown-up sons from a previous marriage. The former Black Watch soldier was a firearms officer with West Mercia Police.

He was born in Dundee in July, 1963, and educated at St Saviour's High School, leaving in 1980. He joined the Black Watch in 1981, serving in Northern Ireland, Germany, Britain and Hong Kong. In 1997 he joined Cheshire Police, qualified as a firearms officer in 2000, spent two years in an armed response vehicle team, then transferred to West Mercia Constabulary in 2003.

The force has set up a fund to co-ordinate donations and offers of support that have flooded in from all over the world.

Chief Supt Guy Rutter said the response to PC Gray’s death had been overwhelming. “So many of Ricky's friends and colleagues have asked to make a financial contribution to help Mrs Gray, so we have set up a fund,” he said.

“We have also had a lot of members of the public outside the force wanting to make a donation and asking how to do so.”

An online book of condolence was opened on the force website, with hundreds of messages of sympathy posted within hours.

Anyone wishing to make a contribution can do so by cheque made payable to West Mercia Police to the PC Ricky Gray Fund, c/o Mrs Jean Hynes, Shrewsbury Police Station, Clive Road, Monkmoor, Shrewsbury SY2 5RW.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is to look into PC Gray’s death.