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Duggans: We'll win justice and change

Family vows to fight 'lawful killing' verdict - and overturn police rules

Family members of police shooting victim Mark Duggan vowed yesterday to challenge both Wednesday's shock jury verdict of lawful killing and controversial police rules on officer testimony.

Mr Duggan's mother Pamela is currently fighting for a review of Association of Chief Police Officers policy.

She argues does it not include "appropriate measures" to reduce the risk that officers directly involved in a fatal shooting might confer with each other before producing their accounts of what happened.

Ms Duggan is seeking to overturn a High Court decision which bars her from applying for a judicial review of the policy.

Her lawyers also contend that the Independent Police Complaints Commission watchdog has failed to issue necessary guidance or take "appropriate steps."

Mark Duggan was gunned down by armed police after the taxi in which he was travelling was stopped in Tottenham Hale, north London, in August 2011.

The shooting, and the response by police in the immediate aftermath, sparked riots in Tottenham which subsequently spread nationwide.

After a four-month inquest, the jury found this week that although Mr Duggan had a gun in the minicab he most likely threw it onto a nearby grass verge as soon as the car came to a stop.

But the jury found that despite the fact Mr Duggan was unarmed at the time of his shooting he had been "lawfully killed" by a police marksman.

The jury found that police had not done enough to gather and react to intelligence about the possibility of Mr Duggan collecting the gun.

But they said the car had been stopped in a location and in a way that "minimised to the greatest extent possible recourse to lethal force."

Family members and supporters reacted with shock and anger on Wednesday after the verdict was announced.

Mr Duggan's aunt Carole Duggan said the family would fight the verdict itself through the courts.

She insisted she wanted "no more demonstrations, no more violence" but said the family would pursue the authorities through peaceful channels.

Speaking after the verdict Ms Duggan said: "The majority of the people in this country know that Mark was executed.

"We are going to fight until we have no breath left in our body for Mark and his children."

His brother Shaun Hall said: "We came for justice today, we don't feel we are leaving with justice."

Family solicitor Marcia Willis-Stewart said: "On August 4 2011 an unarmed man was shot down in Tottenham. Today we have had what we can only call a perverse judgment.

"The jury found that he had no gun in his hand and yet he was gunned down. For us that's an unlawful killing."

The IPCC said it would examine new evidence that had emerged from the inquest.

 

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