Met Police and IPCC forced to apologise to Mark Duggan's family

The Metropolitan Police and Independent Police Complaints Commission have been forced to apologise to the family of Mark Duggan, whose death at the hands of the police triggered off last summer's riots.

A report from the IPCC said that officers had wrongly left it to family members to inform Duggan's parents about the fatal shooting which took place 4th August 2011. His family complained to the IPCC that they had not been told about his death by the Police.

The IPCC commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said, "The investigation is complete and has found that Mr Duggan's parents were not informed of his death by the Metropolitan police service (MPS), whose responsibility it was, and I have upheld that complaint.

"The Met has apologised to the family for the way in which Mr Duggan became aware of his death and I have told them how sorry I am that the IPCC did not provide more support, nor visit them the day after Mr Duggan's death."

The Met's north area commander, Mak Chishty, said, "We recognise that it was the responsibility of the MPS to keep the family informed immediately following the shooting and up until it was handed over to the IPCC family liaison managers. We acknowledge and apologise for the distress caused by not speaking directly to Mark Duggan's parents, Pamela Duggan and Bruno Hall. I met with the family of Mark Duggan on 2 September 2011, and apologised to them directly on behalf of the MPS for the distress caused by officers not attending personally to inform them of their son's death." The IPCC is still conducting a separate investigation into the full circumstances of the shooting.