Britain: Family of shot man want new postmortem

August 13, 2011
Issue 

The family of Mark Duggan, shot dead by police in Tottenham on August 4 have called for a second postmortem to be carried out into the cause of his death.

Mark Duggan was shot dead by armed police in Ferry Lane, Tottenham Hale, on the evening of August 4 after the minicab in which he was travelling was stopped in a pre-planned operation.

The first postmortem suggested he had been shot twice, once in the arm and once in the chest.

It was initially suggested that Duggan had been killed during an exchange of fire with investigators, citing a bullet that lodged in an officers' radio as evidence.

But the bullet pulled out of the radio was a police-issue round.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) also said there was no evidence that a gun found close to Duggan at the scene had been fired.

The commission is currently appealing for witnesses to the incident.

But community activists and monitoring groups expressed concern about the IPCC's track record.

IPCC Community Reference Group spokesperson Ken Hinds said: "I don't know if our community is comfortable with the IPCC ― there are concerns from the past history.

"People like myself are determined that it will be as transparent and as thorough as it needs to be. If they come forward, people can have an impact on this investigation."

The Met has been strongly criticised for its perceived failure to answer the questions of Duggan's family.

It has been suggested that the disturbances that broke out in Tottenham on the night of August 5 were sparked in part by senior officers' refusal to meet with the family.

Community activist Darren Henry said: "The family are grieving and in a tremendous amount of pain.

"Their pain is only going to be reduced by them knowing what happened to their son.

"Our questions aren't being answered. We don't think the family has been treated well and there is a total lack of respect.

"What we want, more than anything else, is some cohesion and some peace."

[Reprinted from www.morningstaronline.co.uk .]

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