The officer, referred to as R31, said he saw the gun in bushes close to the scene of the shooting in Tottenham. Duggan’s death sparked widespread rioting across London in August 2011, reports the BBC
Kevin Hutchinson-Foster is accused of handing over a gun to Mr Duggan 15 minutes before he was stopped by police, an accusation he denies.
R31 told the court that Mr Duggan had appeared to be trying to run away from police after the minicab he was in was stopped The officer tried to stop him escaping about a second befor another firearms officer shot Mr Duggan, he said, giving evidence from behind a screen.
“Once the firearm was discharged, my Lord, I was quite stunned because I was actually only a few feet away from the barrel of the gun when it was discharged and obviously it was extremely loud if you’re quite close to it, and it was quite painful,” said R31.
He described going on to search the area around the minicab, and finding the gun in nearby bushes.
“As I got closer it became quite obvious that it was something in the shape of a self-loading pistol that was in a sock,”
R31 also told the court he saw Mr Duggan’s jacket “ballooning up at the back” as bullets hit him, but did not see whether Mr Duggan was carrying anything or which officer had fired the shots.
Image via Getty
