Death of Mark Duggan

For the Irish soccer player, see Mark Duggan (footballer).
Death of Mark Duggan
Date 4 August 2011 (2011-08-04)
Time 18:15 BST
Location Tottenham Hale, London, United Kingdom
Participants Metropolitan Police Service, Mark Duggan
Reported injuries 1 (police officer)
Reported death(s) 1 (Duggan)
Inquiries Independent Police Complaints Commission

Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man, was shot on 4 August 2011 by police attempting to arrest him in Tottenham, London, United Kingdom, following a surveillance operation, on suspicion of a planned revenge attack following the fatal stabbing of his cousin. He died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The reaction of some people to the apparent circumstances of his death, a public demonstration and an attack on police vehicles, were contributory factors to a riot in Tottenham,[1] which escalated into widespread riots, looting and arson in London and in some major English cities.

Contents

Interception and shooting

The Metropolitan Police Service stopped a minicab which was carrying Duggan as a passenger at about 18:15 BST on 4 August 2011 to attempt to arrest him.[2] In the course of arresting him, the police fired twice, killing Duggan with a single gunshot to the chest. Paramedics from the London Ambulance Service and medics from the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service attended, but Duggan was pronounced dead at scene at 18:41 BST.[3][4]

Initially, a spokesman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is reported to have stated that they "understand the officer was shot first before the male was shot."[5][6] A bullet was found embedded in a radio worn by a policeman,[7] but initial ballistics tests on the projectile indicate it was a "jacketed round", a police issue bullet fired from a Heckler & Koch MP5 semi-automatic carbine, as used by the police.[3] Its presence may have been due to a ricochet or overpenetration.[7][8] The IPCC stated that a loaded Bruni BBM blank-firing pistol converted to fire live rounds was recovered from the scene. The IPCC had commissioned tests on the pistol by the Forensic Science Service and had received advice that it was an illegal firearm.[3][9][10][11][12] The gun was wrapped in a sock, a practice allegedly used to avoid leaving evidence if it was used.[13] The IPCC announced on 9 August that there was no evidence that the gun had been fired, that this had not been ruled out and further tests were being conducted.[3][14][15] On 18 November 2011 it was announced that the IPCC was to investigate whether the same gun had been used in an earlier incident, on 29 July 2011, when a man was assaulted in Hackney.[16] Video and other evidence was obtained by the IPCC showing Duggan had obtained the firearm earlier in day. His fingerprints were found on a cardboard box which appeared to have contained the gun when he collected it. The sock and gun were taken out of the box before Duggan was shot. His DNA and fingerprints have not yet been recovered from the sock which wrapped the gun, nor from the weapon itself.[17]

According to an eyewitness, a police officer had "shouted to the man to stop 'a couple of times', but he had not heeded the warning".[5] A Metropolitan Police Federation representative asserted that the officer who killed Duggan had "an honest-held belief that he was in imminent danger of him and his colleagues being shot".[18]

The police who shot Duggan were part of the Specialist Firearms Command (CO19), accompanying officers from Operation Trident, a London Metropolitan police unit which deals with black-on-black gun crime.[19]

Aftermath

Protest and unrest

Main article: 2011 England riots

At about 17:30 BST on 6 August 2011, Duggan's relatives and local residents marched from Broadwater Farm to Tottenham Police Station. The demonstrators wanted information from police about the circumstances of Duggan's death. A chief inspector spoke with the demonstrators, who demanded to see a higher-ranking officer. About 20:20 BST, some members of the waiting crowd attacked two nearby police cars, setting them on fire. According to Metropolitan Police Commander Adrian Hanstock, the violence was started by "certain elements, who were not involved with the vigil".[8]

Rioting, arson and looting spread to other parts of London, and to other cities in England.[20][21]

Duggan's family condemned the disorder. His older brother said, "We're not condoning any kind of actions like that at all."[22] While Duggan's shooting was perhaps the trigger for the violence, several other causes of the rioting have been suggested.

British Prime Minister David Cameron rejected a causal relationship between the death of Mark Duggan and the subsequent looting.[23]

Response from the police

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Kavanagh of the Metropolitan Police issued an apology to the Duggan family for the manner in which police initially communicated with them,[24] suggesting that the IPCC had a responsibility to provide information to Duggan's family.[25]

Inquiries

The incident was immediately referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC),[26] in accordance with standard practice when anyone dies or is seriously injured following police contact. Investigators accompanied by activists distributed leaflets, appealing for witnesses to come forward.[27] IPCC officers are also searching CCTV footage, 999 calls and radio transmissions.[28]

On 12 August 2011 the IPCC announced that in the immediate aftermath of the incident they may have given misleading information to journalists to the effect that shots were exchanged between Duggan and the police. Although a bullet had been found lodged in a police radio, there was no evidence that it had come from the gun in Duggan's possession.[29]

Duggan's family stated that they do not trust the IPCC to conduct a fair and independent investigation of the killing and asked for an independent inquiry into the relationship between the Metropolitan Police and the IPCC. They sought to commission an independent second postmortem.[30]

David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, said that the shooting raised "huge questions" and we "need answers".[31][32]

Inquiries into Duggan's death by the IPCC and the coroner could take four to six months to complete. Coroner Andrew Walker scheduled a hearing for 12 December 2011.[4]

In November 2011, the IPCC commenced an investigation into the approach by police to a gun crime committed on 29 July 2011 in which the gun which was found at the scene of Duggan's shooting may also have been used.[16]

In November 2011, two community activists who were appointed to liaise with the IPCC, resigned from those posts. A third remained in post. One of those who left said that the IPCC work was "shoddy."[33]

Background

Biography

Duggan, also known as "Starrish Mark",[6][34] was a drug dealer[19] and founding member of North London's "Star Gang",[35][36] an offshoot of the Tottenham Mandem gang.[37] The Telegraph has cited unnamed police sources claiming that Duggan was a "well known gangster"[5] and a "major player and well known to the police in Tottenham".[38] Duggan was a nephew of deceased Manchester gangland boss Desmond Noonan.[39]

Operation Trident had Duggan under surveillance, suspecting that he was planning to commit a crime connected with the death of his cousin Kelvin Easton,[40] who was stabbed to death outside an East London bar in March 2011.[41] Duggan was increasingly paranoid[6][34] as a consequence of his cousin's violent death. The Telegraph claimed that Duggan was bound to avenge the death by the "street code"[40] of the gang.

Duggan's family denounced the allegations against Duggan as "disinformation", claiming that he was "not a gang member and he had no criminal record".[30]

Duggan's funeral procession in Tottenham on 9 September 2011 was viewed by thousands of onlookers. Police maintained a low profile.[42]

Policing issues

There has been tension between African-Caribbean people and the police before and since the Broadwater Farm riot in 1985,[32][43] in which, according to David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, the "cracks that already existed between the police and the community became deep fissures".[32] Since 1985 "there had been some progress made in the relationship between the local community and the police",[44] but the shooting "raised tension".[45] Lammy claimed that Duggan's death occurred as part of "a history in Tottenham that involves deaths in police custody".[46] Claudia Webbe, the chairperson of Operation Trident,[47] asserted that many black people see Duggan's shooting as "yet another unjust death in custody"[48] and that young black people in Tottenham are "still six, seven, eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts".[49]

British novelist Alex Wheatle, who served a term of imprisonment for crimes he committed in the 1981 Brixton riot,[50] asserts that there is "a deep aggravation" that despite many black deaths in police custody there has been no conviction of a police officer.[51]

In response to rumours that the killing of Mark Duggan was an "execution",[52] the IPCC announced: "Speculation that Mark Duggan was 'assassinated' in an execution style involving a number of shots to the head are categorically untrue."[53]

The killing of Mark Duggan was said to be "a simmering source of tension"[54] and a contributory factor to "growing anti-police sentiment"[54] ahead of the Notting Hill Carnival parade in late August. Metropolitan Police Federation vice-chairman John Tully referred to a sense of fury "among locals"[55] in Tottenham and an atmosphere of hatred towards the police and "the establishment" was said to be evident at a meeting Tully attended.[55]

See also

External links

References

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  55. ^ a b Townsend, Mark (27 August 2011). "Notting Hill carnival curfew plan is 'pie in the sky', warn police on ground". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/aug/27/notting-hill-carnival-curfew-police. Retrieved 27 August 2011. 
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