Theresa May sparked anger today by refusing to guarantee a full inquest into Mark Duggan’s death.
Haringey council leader Claire Kober said it was “deeply worrying” that the Home Secretary would not intervene, amid growing concerns about the pace of the inquiry into the police shooting which ignited last summer’s riots.
Ms Kober wrote to Mrs May warning of a “serious risk” the violence will be repeated without a full public examination of the death, and raised fears that relations between the community and police will suffer significant damage.
She urged the Home Secretary to make a “clear commitment” that a full inquest will take place, and asked her to bring together Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the coroner to look at how soon one can take place.
But Mrs May replied that a decision on an inquest was “ultimately a matter for the coroner”, and stressed the importance of a “thorough and independent process”.
Mr Duggan, 29, died in Tottenham on August 4 during an operation by officers from Scotland Yard’s Trident gun crime unit. The IPCC is carrying out an investigation. The sequence of events concerning a handgun found at the scene has still not been established.
Fears have been raised that an inquest will never be held because of a dispute over police phone-tap evidence. A provisional date of next January has been set for an inquest to start — but only if it is gets the go-ahead at a review in October.
Mrs May acknowledged the delay was “frustrating and of concern to the family” and said she understood the need for events to be investigated “as swiftly as transparently as possible”. Ms Kober said: “I think the people of Tottenham and the Duggan family would expect more from the Home Secretary.”
