The police watchdog has admitted it may have wrongly led journalists to believe that police shooting victim Mark Duggan fired at officers before he was killed.
Mr Duggan’s death in Tottenham, north London, on 4 August, was the trigger for the first of four nights of riots that spread from the capital across England.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has confirmed that it may have “inadvertently” given reporters misleading information in the early stages of the investigation.
It was initially reported that Mr Duggan, 29, shot at police. But ballistic tests later found that a bullet which lodged itself in one officer’s radio was police issue.
The IPCC said in a statement today: “Analysis of media coverage and queries raised on Twitter have alerted us to the possibility that we may have inadvertently given misleading information to journalists when responding to very early media queries following the shooting of Mark Duggan by Metropolitan Police Service officers on the evening of August 4.
“The IPCC’s first statement, issued at 22.49 on August 4, makes no reference to shots fired at police and our subsequent statements have set out the sequence of events based on the emerging evidence.
“However, having reviewed the information the IPCC received and gave out during the very early hours of the unfolding incident, before any documentation had been received, it seems possible that we may have verbally led journalists to believe that shots were exchanged, as this was consistent with early information we received that an officer had been shot and taken to hospital.
“Any reference to an exchange of shots was not correct and did not feature in any of our formal statements, although an officer was taken to hospital after the incident.”
Mr Duggan was a passenger in a minicab which was apparently stopped by police near Tottenham Hale Tube station.
A non-police issue handgun, converted from a blank-firing pistol to one that shoots live rounds, was recovered close to the scene of his death.
The bullet lodged in the police radio was a “jacketed round”, a police-issue bullet consistent with being fired from a Metropolitan Police Heckler and Koch MP5, the IPCC said.
An inquest into Mr Duggan’s death, which opened at North London Coroner’s Court in High Barnet on Tuesday, heard the father-of-four died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
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All of this trouble based on a lie. Who did this? To quote the queen of hearts ‘off with their head’.
Or since this is the police….The IPCC’s first statement, issued at 22.49 on August 4,
oops sorry, was a mistake, silly me. Never mind.
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How long do we let the police away with out and out murder the people of this country do not get justice
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Why use the word “misinformed”? Are htfp the police’s stooges too? The police lied, plain and simple. They killed a man and tried to cover it up, and we all know what happened next.
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So because the IPCC prepared some rush statements following the shooting of Mark Duggan as they never had time to gather all the evidence and look at it foresincley because they were under pressure from Duggans family and the Tottenham black community to give answers they are liars ?. Funnily enough once they had time to review all the evidence forensicley, they released teh truth even if it did indeed contradict their initial statement and people are calling it a cover up ?, it would have been a cover up had they continued with their original statement and maintained that Duggan opened fire and planted evidence to back that up.
Now Mark Duggan was under surveillance from armed operation trident officers for a reason, they had intelligence he was carrying a loaded illegal firearm as they had intercepted calls and messages on his mobile.
Duggan had a gun concealed in a sock, not a sock on his foot but a sock to conceal forensic evidence such as finger prints and to catch speant cartridges thus leaving very little forensice evidence behind following a shooting.
Now will some one please tell me what Mark Duggan was doing with an illegal firearm on the UK streets when its against the lawl to do so ?
People are trying to make this lad out to be some sort of “Victim”, well innocent people do not illegal firearms.
Duggan put himself in a situation where the police had intelligence he was acrrying a gun, Duggan put himself in the position where the police had every right to take a shot if they felt he represented a risk to their or the publics safety.
I commend the police for taking that shot as guns are not carried or made to tickle people, they only have one purpose and that is kill, injure or maim the shooters intended target, so as far as I’m concerned its job well done by the Metropolitian police in taking another career criminal drug dealer with links to gangs and another illegal firearm off the streets.
Don’t make a ‘Martyr’ out of this lad, because he’s anything but.
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The police who were there should know exactly what happened, the taxi driver should know, there is no need for any inconsistancees no matter what pressure they are under or NOT from the Duggan family (who they did not even contact until three nights later when they marched to the station to get confirmation).
The IPCC are not the liars, they are the ones who uncovered the police lies, after doing the forensics.
Speaking of planting evidence, the gun was found in a sock, possibly to conceal forensic evidence such as police finger prints, it was not found on his person but near the scene.
Lets not forget that it was in March they kill Smiley Culture and claim he stabbed himself. 2000 people marched to scotland yard in protest. There were no riots then, and five months later, does anyone even remember.
The Police in this country are better than most countries I have been to, but they are far from perfect and need to be held to account when they do commit murder, this has never happened before, so they feel they can get away with it.
No one should be above the law, not the bankers, not the politicians, not the police and not those little kids and gangsters out there rioting in the streets.
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