Image Text:

SHOT DEAD: Armed police killed Mark Duggan

THE MINICAB driver at the centre of the Mark Duggan shooting said he did not see a gun flying through the air when Duggan was shot by police in Tottenham, north London.

The driver, who was transporting Duggan when his cab was intercepted and halted by armed police, claimed there was no indication that the cars that sped up to him and forced him to pull over were police vehicles.

Granted anonymity, he gave evidence through an interpreter at the inquest into the fatal shooting of Duggan in August 2011, which sparked widespread rioting in England.

He said he feared he was being attacked when he was dragged out of his car “like…some kind of criminal.”

"A lot of people got out of cars. They pointed guns towards my car. They had rifles in their hands," he told the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice.

He said Duggan got out of the car and started to run when a “tall officer” shot him.

"I saw him get hit in his back," he added.

He described the officer who fired the shots as “very angry, like someone who had lost his senses"

He claimed he was instructed to stand still or be shot.

He added: “Mark Duggan only got 2ft-3ft from my car when he was shot. He fell on the floor suddenly - but I couldn't see everything.”

The driver also confirmed that Duggan had collected a box from a man in Leyton, east London, having had a two to three-minute conversation with him.

But said he did not get the opportunity to see what was inside the box.

He also claimed that he did not see Duggan with anything in his hand when he ran out of the cab.