INQUEST:MARK DUGGAN, whose shooting by police sparked London's riots, did not fire a shot at police officers before they killed him, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said yesterday.
Releasing the initial findings of ballistics tests, the police watchdog said a CO19 firearms officer fired two bullets and that a bullet that lodged in a police radio was “consistent with being fired from a police gun”.
One theory, not confirmed by the IPCC, is that the bullet became lodged in the radio from a ricochet or after passing through Mr Duggan. Mr Duggan (29) was killed last Thursday in Tottenham, north London, after armed officers from London’s Metropolitan police force (the Met) stopped the taxi in which he was travelling.
The IPCC said Mr Duggan was carrying a loaded gun, but it had no evidence the weapon had been fired. It said tests were continuing.
The officer who fired the fatal shots has been removed from firearms duties, which is standard procedure, pending the investigation.
Officers from the Met’s Operation Trident and Special Crime Directorate 11, accompanied by officers from CO19, the force’s specialist firearms command, stopped the silver Toyota minicab in Ferry Lane, close to Tottenham Hale tube station, to arrest Mr Duggan.
He was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest and received a second gunshot wound to his right bicep. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
An inquest into Mr Duggan’s death was opened at north London coroner’s court yesterday. The coroner, Andrew Walker, offered his sympathies to Mr Duggan’s family and adjourned the hearing to December 12th.
After the hearing, Mr Duggan's family said they were "distressed" by the rioting in the wake of his death. – ( Guardianservice)