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Panorama.S2014E02.Police.Shooting.To.Kill
Transcript
00:00This is the rarely seen side of British policing, and a neat firearms unit in action, rescuing
00:09a hostage from drug dealers.
00:13Tackling dangerous criminals has to be done to protect the public, but firearms teams
00:20are now under intense scrutiny.
00:23I think in some quarters there is clearly a perception that we are not as accountable
00:29as we should be.
00:31The killing of Mark Duggan was ruled lawful, but the shooting remains highly controversial.
00:39The jury said Mark didn't have a gun in his hand, so you tell me, what do you get from
00:48that verdict?
00:50Tonight Panorama reveals police ignored official warnings that operations like this one were
00:56too risky.
00:57He didn't know what was going on, he was confused, he was looking around, and then
01:05crack, crack, crack, crack, and that was it.
01:09An officer from the Met might be charged with murder.
01:14In Manchester, another police shooting means the chief constable is facing prosecution.
01:19Once again we have a situation where it appears that an unarmed man was shot dead by police.
01:27Britain's elite firearms officers normally remain in the shadows.
01:31Tonight they speak out to defend what they're asked to do.
01:35Why did you kill somebody?
01:36I killed somebody because I thought my colleagues and I were about to die.
01:40Do you do it again?
01:41If the situation was exactly the same, then yes.
01:49IFC, when you're ready, over.
02:08This is the Metropolitan Police's elite firearms unit, practising one of its most dangerous
02:13tactics.
02:14These are covert operations, carried out by officers in plain clothes.
02:23These officers belong to the unit involved in killing Mark Duggan.
02:27An operation like this led to his death.
02:33It's known as the hard stop.
02:54The hard stop is quick and aggressive.
02:56The police say it has to be to get results.
03:01It's about domination.
03:02It's about being dynamic.
03:04It's catching them in a moment of unsteadiness or preparedness in as much as we're ready
03:10to react.
03:11They're not, we can react.
03:14Do you want them to have no time to think?
03:16We want to get control of that person as quickly as we possibly can.
03:22But this approach, deliberately confronting armed suspects, has led to three controversial
03:27fatal shootings by the police.
03:30Giselle Rodney and Mark Duggan in London, and Anthony Granger in Manchester.
03:36I think the key ingredients in these cases have been the most confrontational and aggressive
03:45form of response that has too often been disproportionate to the risk posed and has also placed the
03:52public at potential risk.
03:57An inquest has ruled Mark Duggan's killing was lawful.
04:01But it still left questions about police firearms operations and the accountability of the officers
04:06doing them.
04:07We're going to fight until we have no breath in our body for justice.
04:12We are not giving up.
04:15No justice, no peace.
04:19No justice, no peace.
04:24228, G36, and a Taser, please, Paul.
04:29Firearms officers at the front line know they're always at risk of being prosecuted for murder
04:34if they get it wrong.
04:35Number 38.
04:39These two metropolitan police officers have both killed armed suspects.
04:44The shootings were later ruled justified, but they'd faced months of investigation.
04:51It's extremely difficult, especially when you think you're doing something good to protect
04:55the public and protect your colleagues, when you then face the potential of prosecution.
05:03Are you still convinced he did the right thing?
05:05100% convinced.
05:06Even today, years and years after the event, there's still times where I think of the incident
05:11and think, is there anything that I could have done differently?
05:14Is there anything that could have been done to have saved that man's life, to have prevented
05:18us from shooting him?
05:19And there isn't.
05:22Would you do it again?
05:23Yes.
05:24This is the public face of armed policing, uniformed officers on permanent patrol in
05:29every police force in Britain, ready to respond quickly to any firearms incident.
05:35It might be someone involved in a domestic dispute or, nowadays, a terrorist intent on
05:40mass murder.
05:42As the nature of the armed threat has developed, so has the way the police tackles it.
05:48The overwhelming ethos that officers were trained in during the 80s and early 90s was
05:54one of containment.
05:57Now there is a more proactive, pre-emptive approach to engage suspects rather than contain
06:05incidents.
06:06And every police instructor will tell you that the more you engage, the more you move
06:11from containment, the more dangerous it gets for all concerned.
06:17There they go.
06:22We've obtained this police video that shows how far armed policing has advanced.
06:29People traffickers had taken hostages and were demanding money from their relatives
06:33to release them.
06:35The tactics appear militaristic, but storming the building safely released the hostages.
06:41I think militaristic is a helpful word.
06:44We have tactics to use in a whole range of scenarios, whether we choose to make an arrest
06:49of an armed criminal who's in a house, who's walking down the street, who's in a car, whether
06:54we choose to sort of, I don't know, TV slang, stake out a plot for an armed robbery team.
07:00We have all the tactics available for those different scenarios.
07:04The police also train snipers to open fire without warning.
07:09Here police are expecting a security van to be robbed.
07:12Two officers are in hiding, they're snipers.
07:16From OP4, the guard is out, out of the rear of the van.
07:19Robbery, robbery.
07:20He's got a gun to his head.
07:21Robbery, robbery.
07:22Robbery.
07:23Robbery.
07:24Robbery.
07:25He's running towards the guard.
07:30Both men were shot dead by the snipers.
07:33The killings were ruled lawful because of the extreme danger to the security guard.
07:38But lethal police tactics like using snipers have not been openly discussed.
07:44They're not debated.
07:46They are not part of a broader public consultation at all.
07:50It seems to me that there's absolutely a case for a much more wide and open and shared debate
07:55about just that sort of thing.
07:59Firearms officers are trained to use lethal force, but officers who've had to kill someone
08:05say you're never fully prepared for the consequences.
08:08You're trying to justify why you've done this.
08:13You second-guess yourself to think, was there anything else I could have done?
08:17And it is very, very difficult, you know.
08:19I found out very quickly afterwards that it was fatal and all the training in the world
08:25will not prepare you to dealing with having to kill someone.
08:29It is horrendous.
08:30It is absolutely horrendous.
08:33The police say that despite a more aggressive stance, it's still rare for them to open fire
08:39and extremely rare for them to kill someone.
08:43Figures over the last three years will show that of a total of around 12,000 armed operations
08:49in total, police in London have been involved in one fatal shooting during those 12,000
08:55operations.
08:56So we would say the figures speak for themselves and that the operations we conduct are the
09:01safest that you can possibly achieve.
09:05Looking beyond the past three years, police figures reveal a more disturbing pattern.
09:10Eight out of the ten people shot dead by the Met in the past decade have been killed during
09:15pre-planned operations.
09:18These are carried out by the most highly trained firearms officers.
09:23Pre-planned operations make up only a third of the total, but they lead to by far the
09:27most fatal shootings.
09:30If we've got intelligence about armed robbers planning to rob jewellery shops, security
09:36corvettes, whatever, if we've got intelligence about gang criminals carrying guns across
09:41London to go and shoot others, we're going to have to plan operations to confront that
09:45threat.
09:48But a case that goes back to 2005 is now putting armed police operations under intense scrutiny.
09:56Colombian drug dealers had arrived in London and set up a cocaine deal with a local gang.
10:03But the police had intelligence that the gang intended to rob the Colombians.
10:07So the Metropolitan Police had put the local gang under surveillance.
10:12One of them was already wanted for a double stabbing.
10:14George!
10:15He's back to the car with the bag.
10:20He was Azelle Rodney.
10:22Now the police suspected he was collecting guns for the robbery.
10:25Into the driver's side.
10:30Azelle Rodney and another man drove to north-west London.
10:34They were followed by a police surveillance team.
10:38Secret aerial surveillance was also being used.
10:42The gang's phones were probably tapped too.
10:47Azelle Rodney and the others were watched as they made arrangements to collect more
10:51weapons.
10:54The surveillance team then called in a covert firearms unit to provide support.
11:00It's an operation that involves plainclothes officers that shouldn't be seen by the public
11:04and shouldn't be seen by the criminals that we're targeting.
11:08Then there was startling new intelligence.
11:11The surveillance team reported the gang had picked up a machine gun.
11:16This was passed on to the firearms unit.
11:19Police officers always have to take such information seriously.
11:27That must change your mindset, doesn't it?
11:29Absolutely, yeah.
11:30And you need to be aware of that, especially because if you think about the weaponry and
11:36the intent of the person that you're facing, then that, of course, is going to change your
11:40mindset.
11:41But you need to really deal with what you're faced with as well.
11:48The firearms unit followed Azelle Rodney and the two other men.
11:52They had a rough idea where the robbery would happen and planned to intercept the gang before
11:56they got there.
11:59It was going to be a hard stop, the same tactic that resulted in the death of Mark Duggan.
12:05They're always dangerous.
12:08You're so close, having to act so quickly.
12:12Isn't there always a risk that you can get it wrong?
12:15I'm not going to say this isn't a risky business, because it is.
12:18But there's always a thing in the back of your mind saying, you know, to double-check
12:22all the time, to think, am I doing this right?
12:25Am I acting in the right manner?
12:30Time was running out as they reached this suburban street.
12:34The final stages of the operation were filmed by an officer in the last police vehicle.
12:38Easy, easy.
12:39He's in charge of the back seat.
12:43The armed convoy was heading towards this pub.
12:46It was a bank holiday Saturday evening.
12:50Leon Gittins was waiting for his children.
12:52I went out just to see them across the road and had a quick fag.
12:56It's suitable.
12:57We're looking to do it at the roundabout a few stops.
13:01I heard a car screech, tyres screeching.
13:04Looked.
13:05All right, we're going in.
13:06Here we go.
13:07OK.
13:08Hold.
13:09Hold.
13:10Sit.
13:12Hold.
13:13Hold.
13:14Sit.
13:15All right.
13:16Yeah.
13:17Sweet.
13:18Sweet as.
13:19Sweet as.
13:20Sweet as.
13:21Bang, bang, bang.
13:22I can't remember exactly how many.
13:23Three, four, maybe five.
13:24The glass exploded in front of me.
13:27I got showered with glass.
13:29The guy in the back kind of bounced up into the car.
13:32His head hit the top of the roof of the car and he came down and slumped up against the
13:38window.
13:39He knew he'd been killed?
13:40Instantly.
13:42I saw holes, bullet holes in his head.
13:45And I remember thinking, God, I don't want my sons to see this.
13:48I couldn't believe that I've just seen someone killed in front of me.
13:54Police say that a man shot dead by officers in North London was holding a gun.
14:06The man died after the car he was in was stopped.
14:10Azelle Rodney's mother first heard about the shooting on the news, then friends phoned
14:14saying it might be Azelle.
14:17It wasn't until the next day when I actually heard what had happened and two officers actually
14:23came round my house eventually and they said that he'd been shot.
14:28And that was it.
14:29That's all they could say.
14:31And I just knew there was something a lot more than what met the eye.
14:36OK, guys, it's an eight-round shoot from the low-port position.
14:40First four to the body, second four to the head.
14:45Armed officers' training used to focus on shooting at the body.
14:49Now it includes firing at the head, as happened to Azelle Rodney.
15:06Why would you instruct officers to fire at the body and then the head?
15:09If the threat is still there and they've fired a shot to the body,
15:13then the thought process will be, or could be, that they're wearing body armour.
15:18Clearly, we need to stop that threat.
15:21To kill them? To stop that threat.
15:24Shooting in the head means killing.
15:26Well, we shoot to stop.
15:29Investigating Azelle Rodney's death was the responsibility
15:32of the then newly established Independent Police Complaints Commission.
15:40Eight months later, it produced its report.
15:44The IPCC's report rejected the family's complaints.
15:48No police officer was prosecuted or disciplined.
15:51But behind the scenes, the IPCC did have concerns
15:55about the Met's armed operations.
15:57And these were passed on to the police in confidence.
16:02As far back as 2005, the IPCC was worried about the dangers
16:06of how armed suspects were being confronted during hard stops.
16:10The secret recommendation to the Met described hard stops
16:14as a high-risk option, especially for suspects.
16:18The recommendation said,
16:20if their compliance and surrender is not virtually instantaneous,
16:25the risks to the suspect are considerable.
16:28The IPCC recommended the Met review its use of the hard stop.
16:33But as we saw, armed officers are still being trained to use them.
16:37Following the Rodney shooting,
16:39the IPCC in its December 2005 report
16:42asked that the Met review the hard stop.
16:46What did the Met do?
16:48As I understand at the time, there were no formal changes,
16:53there were no major changes to the tactic.
16:55It was a national tactic at that change,
16:57and whilst there have been small changes over the years,
17:00there was no major change.
17:03There was no review?
17:05Certainly not a formal review, no.
17:07But this is the independent body overseeing policing
17:10making a recommendation that you review the hard stop procedure,
17:15and it wasn't done.
17:17And perhaps if some formal paperwork and formal thinking
17:20should have been done at the time, it wasn't.
17:22But we're constantly looking at the tactic.
17:24If anyone has a better idea on how you confront armed criminals in vehicles
17:28with a view to arresting them safely and seizing their weapons,
17:32then we're up for better ideas.
17:34People say review, people don't come forward with better ideas.
17:38In 2011, nearly six years after the IPCC's recommendation,
17:43a fatal police shooting again followed a hard stop in north London.
17:49Mark Duggan was shot dead.
17:54Despite the IPCC's concerns,
17:56no significant changes to the hard stop tactic had been carried out.
18:02It is not for the IPCC to enforce recommendations.
18:06That is for others to do.
18:08We are not the sole body in the picture here.
18:12But they're fairly meaningless if they're not taken up,
18:15you have no powers to enforce them.
18:17In this country, I think moral suasion is an extremely powerful sanction.
18:21And, you know, the questions will be asked, rightly so.
18:25If we have to make a recommendation twice,
18:27then I think there is a legitimate question to be said,
18:30well, why don't you give effect to this the first time round?
18:35Seven years on,
18:37Azelle Rodney's mother still hadn't found out why her son had died.
18:41Susan, can we just ask you what you're hoping for from today?
18:44An inquest had collapsed
18:46and she wasn't allowed to see the Met's secret intelligence,
18:49including phone taps and aerial surveillance.
18:52But under European human rights law,
18:55the government was forced to hold a public inquiry.
18:59They couldn't just come and tell me that, you know,
19:02my son's been shot and that's it.
19:04You know, if it never went, you know, full...
19:07You know, if we didn't do what we'd done and we didn't have an inquiry,
19:11we would have never really known what really happened.
19:16The inquiry looked in detail at the shooting
19:19and the way the hard stop was carried out.
19:22The police's video footage was crucial.
19:25Yeah, sweet, sweet, sweet as, sweet as, sweet as.
19:29In total, eight shots had been fired in quick succession
19:33towards a crowded pub.
19:36One of the bullets had narrowly missed Leon Gittins.
19:40God forbid if my children witnessed their father being shot accidentally
19:45by a police operation on a bank holiday Saturday afternoon
19:49outside a busy pub on a busy roundabout,
19:52you know, on a busy main road in North London.
19:55I mean, for God's sake.
19:58The inquiry found little thought had been given to anyone's safety.
20:02The suspects, the police officers involved, all the public.
20:09A member of the public nearly got killed.
20:13I think it's fair to say that comments have been made
20:16about the conduct of the stop within the inquiry.
20:18We've taken that on board.
20:19We will look to make sure that in our training,
20:21that we develop our tactics and our learning
20:23to minimise the risk to the public.
20:26The police's intelligence about a machine gun had been wrong,
20:30but three poor-quality handguns were recovered.
20:34The two men in the car with Azelle Rodney
20:36admitted having the firearms and were later jailed.
20:39Whatever the police thought he was doing,
20:41they were following him from the day before
20:43and they had ample time to stop and arrest them
20:47if they thought they were doing something.
20:51Unlike the IPCC,
20:53the Azelle Rodney inquiry carried out a thorough investigation.
20:58Before the hearings got under way,
21:00it even staged a reconstruction
21:02of the last moments of Azelle Rodney's life.
21:05Azelle Rodney's shooting was subject to detailed forensic investigation.
21:10Computers from the police cars had recorded their exact movements.
21:14Forensic scientists had that video of the shooting
21:17and they tracked and timed every bullet that had struck Azelle Rodney.
21:22For the first time, there was more to go on
21:24than the accounts of the witnesses.
21:26Most of those, of course, had come from the police officers involved.
21:29The officer who opened fire was given the codename E-7.
21:33He told the inquiry he'd never seen Azelle Rodney holding a gun
21:37but saw him reach down as if to pick one up,
21:40then turn quickly towards him.
21:43Ballistic tests showed this couldn't be true
21:46as Azelle Rodney was still sitting upright when he was first shot.
21:50The first shot that hit Azelle Rodney was in the arm
21:53would have been the first shot.
21:56The first shot that hit Azelle Rodney was in the arm
21:59would have immediately disabled him.
22:01Then the next shot that hits him,
22:03hits him in the back as he's falling down.
22:06It's when his head comes to rest on the edge of the passenger window
22:10nearest E-7 that E-7, at that point, fires the last four bullets.
22:15Two near his ear and the other two right at the top of his head.
22:20Load. Ready.
22:23Under the law, any police officer who opens fire
22:27must justify every single shot.
22:34How is each round justified?
22:36What threshold do they have to meet to justify that round?
22:39They need to stop the threat in front of them.
22:42If that threat requires one shot,
22:46and that criminal stops,
22:50then they've justified that.
22:52Should it continue, they need to justify the next round.
22:58Last July, the inquiry rejected the police officer E-7's account of the shooting.
23:03It ruled that Azelle Rodney had not been given a chance to surrender.
23:08He'd been unlawfully killed.
23:11The chairman's report, after detailed study of the evidence,
23:15is that he is sure and satisfied
23:18he shares my view.
23:22E-7's appealing to the High Court to overturn the unlawful killing verdict.
23:27As things stand, he could be charged with murder.
23:30He's now retired from the Met
23:32after a decorated career as a firearms officer.
23:36Before killing Azelle Rodney,
23:38E-7 had previously shot their two armed robbers.
23:42Both shootings were ruled lawful.
23:49Officers still serving in the firearms unit
23:52refused to accept the finding that Azelle Rodney was unlawfully killed.
23:58What was the reaction to that?
24:00I think of devastation, really.
24:04The officers strongly believe that this isn't the case,
24:09and we will always believe this isn't the case
24:12because they were there for a lawful reason.
24:15The officers still believe that that wasn't an unlawful killing?
24:19Yes.
24:21Despite the public inquiry? Yes.
24:26In Tottenham, the more recent killing of Mark Duggan
24:29again raised questions about the conduct of police firearms operations.
24:33There was little doubt Mark Duggan had just collected a weapon
24:36when the police stopped his taxi.
24:38But there was conflicting evidence about whether it was in his hand
24:42or whether it was in the pavement and was shot.
24:48The inquest jury decided he wasn't carrying the gun.
24:52He'd already thrown it away.
24:54But they concluded the police officer was still justified
24:57in shooting Mark Duggan.
24:59It was a lawful killing.
25:03The jury are saying that the gun had been thrown
25:07prior to that encounter with that officer.
25:11So if they're saying the gun has been thrown,
25:13there is no gun in Mark Duggan's hand.
25:16And the threat then that the officer is saying he has from the gun,
25:21it's not there.
25:23He said he shot twice because both times he saw,
25:26his eyes were glued to the gun in Mark's hand.
25:29Yet the jury said Mark didn't have a gun in his hand.
25:33So you tell me, what do you get from that verdict?
25:42SHOUTING
25:48Mark Duggan's killing had sparked riots.
25:51The ruling it was lawful won't end the controversy.
25:55The IPCC are still investigating,
25:58but the Metropolitan Police say it's been vindicated.
26:05You can never be celebratory about a death.
26:07We will run every operation with the intention of arresting people.
26:10We never want anybody to end up dead. That's awful.
26:13But ten ordinary men and women of London have trusted our officers.
26:18The latest fatal police shooting was in Manchester.
26:22It followed a familiar pattern.
26:24A covert firearms team intercepted what they'd been told
26:28was a team of armed robbers.
26:30Anthony Granger was immediately shot dead as he sat in a parked car.
26:35Neither he nor the men he was with were armed.
26:40Something needs to be done about the way that the police
26:43actually carry out operations in the future.
26:46We can't bring Anthony back, and that's...
26:51..it's heartbreaking.
26:53But I do think for families in the future
26:55that something needs to be changed.
26:58Last week, the Crown Prosecution Service announced
27:01Greater Manchester Police was being prosecuted
27:04for health and safety failings.
27:06But it decided the firearms officer who killed Anthony Granger
27:10would not be charged.
27:13To them, it's just a name.
27:15But for the family, it's real.
27:18And for the families of the next victim
27:20and the families of the victims that have passed, it's real.
27:23There's just no justice.
27:29An inquest into Anthony Granger's death is due to start in April.
27:33Another fatal shooting threatens to undermine trust in the police.
27:37But senior police officers believe their tactic
27:40of confronting armed suspects is still vital.
27:44I think it is inevitable these sort of operations
27:46will lead to controversial cases,
27:48but I wouldn't frame it in the context of armed policing.
27:51I'd frame it in the context of taking on gun crime.
27:54So this year, we're heading towards a 25% reduction in shootings,
27:57on top of a 20% reduction last year.
27:59We're having a positive effect because we've put dangerous people
28:02on the streets and take farms off the streets.
28:10Fewer armed criminals
28:12and too many controversial police shootings
28:15are likely to lead to change.
28:17The way the police run armed operations is being questioned
28:21like never before.
28:24Next week, the Winter Olympics will be the most expensive ever,
28:28but are they also the most corrupt?
28:30John Sweeney investigates claims that billions of pounds
28:34have been stolen by Russian contractors and officials.
28:40An old case leads the team to investigate the darker side of boxing.
28:43Drama with new tricks next on BBC One.
28:46On BBC Three now, there's stand-up with Live at the Apollo.
28:49While over on BBC Four, there's a 70s experiment
28:52to nurture a chimpanzee like a child.
28:54It's the subject of the drama documentary Project Nim.