Mark Duggan inquest: Suspect shot dead as he drew gun on police, officer claims

ARMED police shot Mark Duggan as he raised a gun he had been hiding under his jacket when they swooped on a taxi he was in, one of the officers involved has told a court.

Mr Duggan, 29, whose death last year sparked the London riots, was hiding something in his right hand when the minicab was stopped by police in north London, the specialist firearms officer, known as W70, said.

He told the trial of Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, who is accused of providing Mr Duggan with a handgun minutes before he was killed on 4 August last year, that Mr Duggan started to get out and raised the gun, before he was shot twice.

He told Snaresbrook Crown Court, Mr Duggan, who was less than five metres away from him, was “stooped” as they surrounded the cab and identified themselves.

He said the raid’s target could be seen hiding something under the left-hand side of his jacket, in a pocket or in the waistband of his trousers. “It very much appeared he was concealing something in his right hand with that jacket,” W70 said.

“As he was pivoting in that position [to exit the car], concealing something in his right hand, at the same time he has very quickly drawn out his right hand from the left-hand side of his waistband and inside his jacket.

“He was holding a self-loading pistol or a handgun.

“As he has quickly drawn his right hand up and out of his jacket I have heard two shots from my left.”

He said Mr Duggan fell to his knees on the ground clutching his chest before W70 pushed him to the ground. Prosecutor Edward Brown QC asked the officer, who had four years of firearms unit experience at the time of the shooting: “Do you have any doubt as to what was in Mark Duggan’s hand?”

He replied: “No, I believe it was a handgun.”

The officer said that he and another of the 12 officers involved searched Mr Duggan for a gun, without finding it. They then started giving the “limp and unresponsive” man first aid.

Stuart Denney QC, defending Hutchinson-Foster, asked what happened to the gun after Mr Duggan was shot.

“I have no idea,” W70 replied, adding: “I have no recollection of what happened to the firearm after I saw it exiting the jacket.”

Hutchinson-Foster is on trial accused of passing the gun to Mr Duggan that same day. The 30-year-old, of no fixed abode, is charged with “selling or transferring a prohibited firearm” to Duggan between 28 July and 5 August 2011.

He denies passing the modified BBM Bruni Model 92 handgun to Mr Duggan, contrary to the Firearms Act 1968.

Meanwhile, Desire Cox, who had been called as a prosecution witness, changed her evidence yesterday, leaving Mr Brown to suggest Hutchinson-Foster had asked her to change her story.

Her evidence concerned a River Island box that the prosecution says, the gun was in when it was given to Mr Duggan.

She denied ever giving Hutchinson-Foster such a box, although she admitted she may have had one in her house.

She blamed the information in her statement on being tired when it was written, as at the time she was looking after her one-month-old baby.

The trial continues Monday.