Mark Duggan

Mark Duggan

Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black British man, was shot dead by police in Tottenham, North London on 4 August 2011. The Metropolitan Police stated that officers were attempting to arrest Duggan on suspicion of planning an attack and that he was in possession of a handgun. Duggan died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The circumstances of Duggan's death resulted in public protests in Tottenham, which led to conflict with police and escalated into riots across London and other English cities.Duggan was under investigation by Operation Trident, an anti-crime project conducted by the Metropolitan Police. He was aware of this and texted the message "Trident have jammed me" moments before the incident.He was known to be in possession of a BBM Bruni Model 92 handgun, a blank-firing replica of a Beretta 92 pistol, converted to fire live rounds. This had been given to him by Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, 15 minutes before he was shot. At an initial trial of Hutchinson-Foster in September–October 2012 the jury failed to reach a verdict. At a re-trial on 31 January 2013 Hutchinson-Foster was convicted of supplying Duggan with the gun and jailed. In August 2013 the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said its investigation had substantially ended and that they had found no evidence of criminality by the police. A public inquest on the Duggan death began on 16 September 2013, and ended on 8 January 2014 with an 8–2 majority concluding that Duggan's death was a lawful killing.Conflicting accounts of the events leading up to Duggan's death were provided by the Metropolitan Police, attracting criticism and suspicion from invested parties and other supporters. These critics accused police of misconduct and of failing to cooperate with those investigating Duggan's death.

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