London - An official inquiry was started yesterday after a man clutching a novelty cigarette lighter in the shape of a gun was shot six times by armed police.
The victim, who was in his 30s and of Rastafarian appearance, was pronounced dead in hospital after the shooting in Brixton, south London, on Monday afternoon.
The shooting, which is now the subject of a Police Complaints Authority investigation, is the second time in less than a week that police have shot someone dead.
Last Thursday Mr Andrew Kernan, a 37-year-old schizophrenic from Liverpool, was shot twice in the chest by police while armed with a sword.
The Brixton shooting happened after police were called to flats in Loughborough Road to reports of a man carrying a silver handgun, police said.
