Tottenham: police shooting followed by riots

[Jan Klimkowski]

Photos of Saturday night's rioting, which included the torching of two police cars, a double-decker red London bus, and several businesses and homes, can be seen here.

Some of the looting was criminal opportunism: a computer store (PC World) and a sports goods store selling trainers etc were amongst the first shops broken into and emptied.

However, there's also anger in the community after a local man, Mark Duggan, was shot dead by Scotland Yard firearms officers on Thursday.

The official police story is as follows:

Man shot dead by police in north London during attempted arrest

Mark Duggan died instantly at scene as 'exchange of fire' heard with police after Trident officers stopped minicab

Sandra Laville, crime correspondent guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 August 2011 20.16 BST

A father of three died instantly after an apparent exchange of fire when police attempted to arrest him in north London, it emerged on Friday.

A police marksman escaped with his life when a bullet lodged in his radio during the confrontation that ended in the death of Mark Duggan, 29. The Scotland Yard firearms officer was taken to hospital and later released.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the fatal shooting, said the bullet and a non-police-issue handgun found at the scene had been sent for forensic tests.

IPCC investigators believe two shots were fired by an armed officer. A spokesman for the IPCC said that at around 6.15pm on Thursday officers from Operation Trident, the Metropolitan police unit that deals with gun crime in London's black communities, with officers from the Specialist Firearms Command (CO19), stopped a minicab to carry out a pre-planned arrest.

"Shots were fired and a 29-year-old man, who was a passenger in the cab, died at the scene," said the spokesman. Photographic and forensic examination was continuing, and a search for CCTV footage was continuing, the spokesman said. A postmortem examination would be carried out as soon as possible.

IPCC commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said: "Fatal shootings by the police are extremely rare and understandably raise significant community concerns."

The dead man's girlfriend, Semone Wilson, 29, said she had received a text message from him shortly before the shooting. "At about 6pm he sent out a message on his BlackBerry saying 'The Feds are following me', and that's it. That's the last time anyone heard from him."

As the IPCC appealed for witnesses, conflicting accounts of the shooting emerged. One man told the London Evening Standard he had seen officers shoot a man on the ground. But others said a shot was fired from the cab before police returned fire.

The scene was visited by David Lammy, the MP for the area, who said: "I am shocked and deeply worried by this news. There is now a mood of anxiety in the local community but everyone must remain calm. It is encouraging that the Independent Police Complaints Commission has immediately taken over the investigation. There is a need to clarify the facts and to move quickly to allay fears."

"It is very important that our community remains calm and allows the investigation to take its course."

Jay Crowned, 39, who lives locally, last night described the dead man as "a local boy who was loved by the community".

"The whole family is devastated," she said, adding that he had been feeling down since a friend was killed this year.

"His friend was like a brother and he lost him brutally. Since then he's been really down."

Now, the same Guardian crime correspondent is reporting the following:

Initial ballistics tests on the bullet that lodged in a police officer's radio when Mark Duggan died on Thursday night show it was a police issue bullet, the Guardian understands.

The Guardian's crime correspondent, Sandra Laville, reports:

The revelation will fuel the fury in Tottenham about the killing of Mark Duggan by armed officers.

It also undermines suggestions that there was an exchange of fire between Duggan and the police before he died.

The bullet which was found lodged in the radio of one of the officers at the scene is still undergoing forensic tests. But reliable sources have said the first ballistics examinations suggested it was a police issue bullet.

These are very distinct as the Metropolitan Police uses dum dum type hollowed out bullets designed not to pass through an object.

The early suggestion from the IPCC was that the Met officers had returned fire after someone in the minicab opened fire. But the result of the ballistics early test suggests both shots fired came from the police.

Duggan's family are also claiming that whilst he was carrying a gun, it was still in his sock when he was shot dead.

Tottenham could be about to burn again....