The Duggan inquest has reached an end after the jury decided that the North London resident was lawfully killed by the Metropolitan Police on 4th August 2011.
The outcome wasn’t peacefully accepted by Mark Duggan’s family and friends, as they destroyed furniture inside London’s High Court and tried to knock down the coroner’s office door.
Supporters of the defendant shouted, “No justice, no peace” and “F*** the police” when leaving the court.
As Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley tried to communicate to the media the final verdict, followers of the Duggan family made their voices heard, leading Rowley to difficulties while delivering the statement.
“The majority of people in this country know Mark was executed,” said Carole, the aunt of Mr. Duggan. “He was executed and we still believe that.”
The death of Duggan sparked a series of riots in London and across England days after the shooting. The incidents resulted in the death of five people, dozens of injuries, more than 3,000 arrests and millions of pounds in damages.
Fears of a second wave of violence following the jurors’ decision have risen within the police.
On the eve of the verdict being revealed, a crowd of more than 50 gathered outside Tottenham Police Station. Several of the protesters, who shouted at polic, were hooded.
The whole inquest was condensed to six separate conclusions:
-The jury unanimously agreed that police did not do enough to gather and react to intelligence suggesting Duggan might be collecting a gun from Kevin Hutchinson-Foster.
-All the jurors voted that police did carry out the stop in a location and in a way that minimised as much as possible the risk of needing ‘lethal force.’
-It was accepted that Duggan had a gun with him in his taxi immediately before being stopped by the MP.
-One juror didn’t believe that the father of six threw the gun onto a nearby patch of grass, and two jurors didn’t accept the idea of this happening as soon as the car was stopped.
-Eight of the 10 members of the jury agreed that Duggan did not have a gun in his hand when he received the fatal gunshot to his chest.
-The end of the voting was won with a 8-2 majority, with lawful killing being attributed to the reason of the Met Office police officer.
Duggan was killed following a deep investigation by the Metropolitan Police to tackle gun crime in London.
Under the name of Operation Trident, the police unit was active since 1998 and was mainly focused in the Afro-Caribbean communities.
“On any given day, highly trained Metropolitan Police firearms officers can face life-threatening situations in which they have to make instant judgments,” said Mayor of London Boris Johnson following the inquest.
“In the last four years, having responded thousands of times of times, they have discharged their weapons on just six occasions. Londoners should feel assured that the police do an incredible job keeping this city safe.”
Following the sentence on the 8th January 2014, police guns’ rules will suffer changes.
Scotland Yard has announced that all armed police will start carrying a camera, whose footage will be used in scenarios like the one in which Duggan was caught.
“Cameras will create a greater transparency around firearms operations,” Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley from the Met Police said.