Duggan was unarmed when killed

It has been revealed that Mark Duggan, the Tottenham man shot and killed by police officers in August, was not holding a gun when he was fatally shot – a fact  which goes directly against the initial police version of events who claimed to be returning fire.

Duggan’s killing indirectly led to wide-spread rioting across London and the UK last summer after a Tottenham protest clashed with police.

Events on the day of the shooting are still confusing but it now appears that Duggan did purchase a firearm earlier in the day but at the time of Duggan’s death it was stowed away in a box at the rear of a hired people carrier well out of reach. Neither Duggan’s DNA nor finger prints have been found on the weapon.

Reports have stated that Duggan was in fear of his life after a relative had been killed although police speculate that he had purchased the weapon for revenge rather than self-defence.

Armed police officers have a difficult and dangerous job but while the public would accept fatal errors may sometimes occur there is a serious concern that police officers are less than truthful after such incidents occur.

This  is not the first time that an initial version of events put out by the police service bears little relationship to the truth. This would be serious at any time but when it regards fatal incidents involving armed police officers it is simply not acceptible and this was one reason among many that people in the Tottenham area were moved to demonstrate in the wake of the killing.

We should not expect the police never to make mistakes but we cannot tolerate the kind of serious misrepresentations of events that seek to whitewash the behaviour of Metropolitan Police officers at the cost of the truth.