Scotland’s top police officer has admitted the initial response to a shooting near Aberfeldy was “not what we wanted” as a probe into the handling of the case continues.
Brian Low’s death close to the Perthshire town on February 17 was treated as not suspicious at first.
Officers only established that he had been shot nearly a week later and launched a murder probe.
This led to an admission that evidence may have been lost from the murder scene.
The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner has since launched a review of the handling of the case.
In her first public admission that parts of the probe may have been botched, Chief Constable Jo Farrell told STV News: “(The handling of the investigation) is subject of an external inquiry, as the public would expect, as the family would expect.
Jo Farrell: Aberfeldy shooting response ‘does not typify Police Scotland’
“Quite clearly, that response is not what we wanted but it is subject to an inquiry, so we have to let that work its way through.”
She also told the Scottish Sun: “It is not a response that typifies Police Scotland and its ability and the expertise and professionalism of our officers.”
It comes as politicians for the area have been invited to a briefing with police next week to update them on the inquiry.
Aberfeldy councillor John Duff, who is among those invited, says he will be asking questions about issues including the recovery of evidence, the motive for the shooting, the role of paramedics on the day Mr Low was found and the initial stages of the police probe.
He told The Courier: “The family and the local community still need answers – three months have passed and there appear to have been no further developments.
“Safety concerns in Aberfeldy are receding but people are still talking about it and asking questions – they still need answers.
“There is still rumour and speculation and people need to know the truth.
“The key to this does seem to lie within the community and at the moment, potentially innocent people are having fingers pointed at them.
‘It appears police are no further forward’
“Someone somewhere must surely hold the key to what happened that morning – it might just take someone to come forward with a piece of information that might help police get to the bottom of this.
“Speculation is not helpful but it does appear that police are no further forward in discovering who killed Brian Low.”
However, Detective Superintendent Lorna Ferguson said officers still did not have a suspect.
The Courier has produced a timeline of events on the Aberfeldy shooting.
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