BBC News: Eye Witness Account of Police beating a 16 year old girl - Tottenham Riot 2011 Doubts emerge over Duggan shooting as London burns. Doubts have emerged over whether Mark Duggan, whose death at the hands of police sparked the weekend's Tottenham riots, was killed during an exchange of fire .
The Guardian understands that initial ballistics tests on a bullet, found lodged in a police radio worn by an officer during Thursday's incident, suggested it was police issue – and therefore had not been fired by Duggan. On Saturday night 26 police officers were injured, eight requiring hospital treatment, in clashes with around 300 rioters in Tottenham that saw buildings and vehicles torched, shops looted and residents forced to flee their homes. Police have arrested 55 people as a major investigation began into the escalation of violence, which followed a peaceful demonstration to demand "justice" for Duggan, 29, a father of four shot dead on Thursday evening after being stopped in a taxi near Tottenham Hale. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has launched an inquiry into the shooting. Mark Duggan handgun tests show conversion into lethal weapon. Mark Duggan, whose shooting by police sparked the Tottenham riots, may have held handgun converted to use live ammunition, according to ballistics tests.
Photograph: pixel8000 The weapon being carried by Mark Duggan, the man whose death sparked the weekend's rioting, was a converted handgun capable of firing real ammunition, the Guardian understands. Forensic tests are being carried out on the handgun found at the scene of Duggan's fatal shooting and bullets fired by the police. It is understood that ballistics experts have established that the firearm being carried in the minicab was a handgun which at one point had not been capable of firing – a replica, a starting pistol or a collector's weapon.
But the firearm had been converted – as many illegal firearms purchased on the street are – into a lethal weapon capable of carrying live ammunition. The IPCC has said that they hope to have a fuller ballistics picture within 24 hours. Police apologise to Mark Duggan's family for failing to keep them informed. A row has broken out between police and the body charged with investigating them over who let down the family of Mark Duggan by failing to keep them informed of what had happened to him.
The family of Duggan, shot dead by police on Thursday, said they were angered by the lack of information they received, and that their upset stoked tensions immediately before Saturday's riot in Tottenham. The circumstances surrounding the death are being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The Metropolitan police apologised to the family on Monday, having earlier said that once the IPCC takes over an investigation, they also take over the role of family support. Deputy assistant commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said: "I want to apologise to the Duggan family because I think both the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and the Metropolitan Police could have managed that family's needs more effectively.
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