Mark Duggan and the disappearing gun

Submitted by Matthew on 25 October, 2013 - 8:05

Witnesses at the inquest into Mark Duggan’s shooting by police have contradicted the version of events provided by police.

The inquest has been set up to establish the facts around the killing of Mark Duggan by police in Tottenham in 2011. The killing sparked a protest then a riot in Tottenham, leading into nationwide rioting on a scale unseen in the UK for decades.

In 4 August 2011, unmarked police cars surrounded the minicab that Duggan was travelling in. Police say he then got out of the car. According to the officer who killed him, Duggan was holding a gun. The officer said he believed Duggan was about to open fire, so shot him twice. However, after the shots were fired, the officer says “the gun was not there.”

Police say that a gun was later found 10 to 20 feet away from where Duggan fell.

However, two witnesses have cast doubt on this version of events. The driver of the minicab says that he did not see Duggan carrying a weapon either in the cab itself or when he got out and was shot. Another eye-witness testimony seems to contradict the police’s version of events.

The witness, unnamed, says that she saw an officer emerging from the car carrying a gun in a piece of cloth, with an expression “like he’d found gold”. The witness remembers being startled to see a gun in broad daylight, and asking her daughter if she had seen it as well.

Some have argued that these testimonies suggest that the police are, at best, providing a garbled version of events, or at worst, planted the gun themselves.

The family of Mark Duggan have spoken out at the secrecy surrounding the killing, and the length of time the police have taken to clarify the events of that day.

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