London police accused of 'shoot-to-kill' policy

The family of Mark Duggan, the man whose fatal shooting by police sparked five days of widespread riots around Britain last month, have accused London officers of operating a 'shoot to kill' policy. Speaking ahead of Duggan's funeral on Friday, his 42 year old brother, Shaun Hall, said London's Metropolitan Police were “clearly operating a shoot to kill policy” on the day Mark was gunned down. “They are supposed to disable, not kill, suspects. If they hadn't shot and killed Mark there would have been no riots,' Hall said. The riots, the worst seen in Britain in living memory, erupted at Tottenham, in north London, where Duggan was shot in the chest after being intercepted while travelling in a taxi. The family told the Guardian that they had information that the bullet fired would have killed him in seven to 12 seconds, giving him no prospect of surviving. Duggan, reported to be a known criminal, is alleged to have had a gun in his socks but his relatives say they have been told there was no forensic evidence of his fingerprints on the gun recovered from the scene of the shooting, according to the daily. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating the killing on August 4, has also subsequently confirmed two shots fired that day were from a CO19 firearms officer, disproving claims there had been a shoot-out. There are said to be many unanswered questions about the killing, including why the taxi Duggan was travelling in was initially moved from the crime scene before being returned. Anti-terrorist officers have previously been accused of operating a shoot-to-kill policy in relation to the mistaken killing of Brazilian engineer Jean Charles de Menezes at a London underground station in 2005. British security forces have also been frequently accused of carrying out shoot-to- kill policies during the conflict in Northern Ireland.