Crime Solicitors

An inquest into the shooting of Mark Duggan – whose death sparked the London riots in 2011 – has concluded that he was lawfully killed.

Duggan’s death was the subject of a huge backlash among his community in north London and the ensuing riots spread across the UK on the weekend of August 5-6 in 2011, causing millions of pounds worth of damage to homes and businesses and threatening lives of people trapped in burning buildings.

Police officers maintained Duggan was shot after he was seen with a firearm after being stopped in Tottenham, north London.

However some witnesses claim Duggan was unarmed at the time he was shot and was actually holding a mobile phone and looked as though he might be surrendering after being stopped by the police.

The Duggan family’s solicitor also alleges a firearm found discarded on waste ground nearby immediately after the shooting had been planted by police officers.

The officer at the centre of the case – known as V53 – said he saw Duggan with a firearm and was hoping he would drop it.

“The next thing he does, he starts to move the gun away from his body,” he told the inquest.

At the time Duggan was stopped, he was in a taxi being followed by police officers, who thought he was on his way to collect a gun before going to Broadwater Farm – an estate in Tottenham where PC Keith Blakelock was hacked to death by an angry mob in October 1985, while trying to control riots there.

The jury at the Duggan inquest decided, however, that Duggan was armed before his taxi was stopped and threw the gun away seconds before police shot him dead. A weapon was found six metres away from Mr Duggan’s body.

The man who supplied Duggan with the firearm less than 15 minutes before he was shot dead was jailed for 11 years last year. Kevin Hutchinson-Foster was a known drug dealer and gave evidence at the inquest, where he blamed the police for Duggan’s death. He also said he would be appealing his own 11-year prison sentence.

Supporters of Mark Duggan and his family reacted angrily as a jury at the High Court in London returned a verdict that Duggan was lawfully shot by police.


Crowds also collected outside Tottenham Police Station after the verdict. The Duggan family’s solicitor said the verdict was a “perverse judgment”.

Supporters of the Duggan family had to be restrained by security guards inside the Royal Courts of Justice, after a door was smashed. Mr Duggan’s aunt claimed her nephew – the father of six children – had been “executed” by police officers.

Outside the court, Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley was heckled as some members of the crowd shouted “murderers” and “murdering scum”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Foote from the Metropolitan Police’s gang crime unit Trident said, however, that Duggan was a member of the Tottenham Man Dem gang – which had a history of violent behaviour and drug-related activity. He called Duggan “violent and confrontational”. Police also say Duggan was linked to another gang known as the Star Gang based in north London.

The Met Police is on alert for incidents of violent disorder across London following the verdict. After the riots sparked by Duggan’s death in 2011, more than1,000 people were charged with disorder offences across the UK.

Duncan Lewis Criminal Solicitors

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