IPCC may mislead media over Duggan's death - Xinhua

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LONDON, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on Friday admitted that it may mislead journalists on death of Mark Duggan, who was believed to fire at officers first before he was killed, local media reported.

Duggan, aged 29, was travelling in a minicab when he was questioned by police in relation to a firearms investigation. Duggan was reportedly carrying an illegal gun and fired at police before he was shot by police in north London.

But ballistic tests later found that a bullet which lodged itself in one officer's radio was police issue.

His death led to riots in Tottenham over the weekend, which then spread to other areas of London and other cities across England earlier this week.

"Analysis of media coverage and queries raised on Twitter have alerted to us to the possibility that we may have inadvertently given misleading information to journalists when responding to very early media queries following the shooting of Mark Duggan by MPS officers on the evening of August 4," IPCC said in a statement.

"The IPCC's first statement, issued at 22:49 on August 4, makes no reference to shots fired at police and our subsequent statements have set out the sequence of events based on the emerging evidence," it added.

"However, having reviewed the information the IPCC received and gave out during the very early hours of the unfolding incident, before any documentation had been received, it seems possible that we may have verbally led journalists to believe that shots were exchanged as this was consistent with early information we received that an officer had been shot and taken to hospital," according to the statement.

"Any reference to an exchange of shots was not correct and did not feature in any of our formal statements, although an officer was taken to hospital after the incident," IPCC said.

Until now, at least 1,000 people have been arrested across the country and over 500 charged over rioting and looting. Courts in London, Birmingham and Manchester worked throughout the night to hear the cases of some arrested during the violence.

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