Sorry to ask you to do my donkey work FA, but seeing as you are on the case so to speak, can you furnish me with the account of how the gun was thrown into the field.

I am not questioning that Duggan threw it or suggesting that it was planted.

It's just that for Duggan to throw it there he had to have opened the door or wound the window down at some stage.

Now I can tell, as a driver, if this has occurred.

What did the taxi driver say?

If he wasnt a member of that gang. If he wasnt carrying a gun.



The taxi he was in wouldnt have been stopped would it?



Only himself to blame.

I was just about to post the same thing. To be fair to the US police they have to deal with nutters with guns far far more frequently than we do so you can understand that they're more likely to "shoot first" so to speak. I remember seeing on one those police camera action type tv shows a police officer just pulls over a bloke just to give him a speeding ticket and as soon as he gets alongside the side window the bloke pulls out a gun and shoots the police officer.



But they are still too reckless and gung-ho over there.





I agree to a point. I'm only going off memory here so apologies if I'm wrong but didn't the police think he was on his way to commit a murder? So would have to stop the car he was in rather than wait til he got to his destination. I might be wrong on that though.

But if they've decided they need to stop the car I'm not sure what the best way is to be honest, if you just sit behind and put blue lights on you're relying on him pulling over and not driving off and then you've got a pursuit on your hands.



As I said, my biggest issue is with the gun. Either how did it get out of the car and over a hedge? Or as FA points out, if it was thrown that doesn't tally with the officer's statement. Unfortunately I'm very sceptical of the police in this kind of situation as I think their first reaction is just to close ranks.

It's one of the topics on the Jeremy Vine Show right now.

That seems a pretty poor justification for summary execution doesn’t it?

A court of law has proved that didnt happen. So your point is?

Actually a court of law decided that a firearms officer’s response to the specific threat he faced was lawful.



It did not decide that it was ok for the reasons you highlighted. Had the justification you highlighted been the justification they used, it is likely that officer would be facing a murder charge.

A court of law has decided that this didn't happen.

They haven't proved it.

Just to make it 100% accurate,

You are correct.

The family's solicitor Marcia Willis Stewart seemed to use rather emotive language outside the court too...







The jury said that they believed the police officer when he stated that he had an honest and reasonable belief that Mark Duggan still had the gun when he shot him.



Surely a solicitor should understand that that is all that is required ?

I don't know if there was any direct evidence positively explaining how the gun came to be where it was other than the Guardian reported the taxi driver as saying:



According to the IPCC at the time, the evidence that Duggan got out and ran was corroborated by at least one officer.



Again according to the Guardian:



It will be interesting to read what they say about that when they produce their final report, although due to their misinformation and criticisms of their investigation, its conclusions are doomed before they are ever even made. As well as the other many curious aspects - including the police moving the car from the scene and then bringing it back - it being initially denied that they had authorised this.