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Police marksman arrested after shooting suspect dead in Wood Green Police marksman arrested after shooting suspect dead in Wood Green
(about 4 hours later)
A police marksman has been arrested after shooting dead a suspect in north London. Scotland Yard was rocked on Thursday by the arrest of a police marksman who shot a suspect dead near a London court.
The commissioner of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), Cindy Butts, said the officer who shot dead Jermaine Baker on 11 December in Wood Green was arrested and interviewed under criminal caution on Thursday afternoon. Jermaine Baker, 28, died last Friday morning after a single bullet struck him in the neck as he sat in a car 100 yards from Wood Green crown court in north London.
She delivered the news at a community meeting in Tottenham, north London, the IPCC said. The Guardian has learned that Baker, claimed by some media reports to have been a gangster, did not feature on the Metropolitan police’s databases of gang members.
It was revealed on Thursday that a homicide investigation, which is focusing on the armed officer, is looking at how far Baker was from a weapon allegedly found inside the car.
Two other men in the car have been charged with plotting to help release two prisoners from a van as they were being brought to Wood Green crown court that day for sentencing.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating Baker’s death and the actions of officers in a criminal homicide investigation, which saw the armed officer suspended from duty on Wednesday.
Baker was from Tottenham, north London, which for decades has had tense relationships with the police and has seen riots, deaths at police hands, an officer killed and battles through the courts.
IPCC commissioner Cindy Butts told a public meeting on Thursday that the officer who shot the suspect had been arrested and interviewed under criminal caution on Thursday afternoon. The IPCC declined to say what the officer had been arrested for.
Butts stressed the arrest did not mean the officer would be charged.Butts stressed the arrest did not mean the officer would be charged.
She said the IPCC had found a black Audi at the scene, in which there was a “non-police issue firearm”. Baker appeared to have been shot while in the vehicle, she said. Butts was unable to say exactly where either the firearm or Baker were in the vehicle. “These questions are the focus of our investigation,” she told the meeting. Baker was in a black Audi at the scene and the IPCC said its investigators had discovered a “non-police issue firearm” in the car. The other men in the car face charges over an imitation weapon, according to the Met.
She added that further forensic examinations would take place on the firearm found in the car and the one that was fired by the officer, killing Baker. Baker had been shot while in the vehicle and Butts declined to say where investigators suspect either the firearm or Baker were as those issues are “the focus of our investigation”.
Butts told the meeting: “A CCTV trawl has been undertaken and, at this stage, no relevant CCTV has been identified. No body-worn cameras have captured the incident.” She confirmed that officers had not been wearing body cameras, prompting shouts of “Why?” Butts told the meeting that no relevant CCTV footage had been identified. Officers were not wearing body cameras, which drew repeated criticism from the meeting and shouts of “Why?”
“I am aware of the concerns and frustrations the community have on this issue and would like to reiterate that we the IPCC support the widest possible use of body-worn video,” she said. Butts told the meeting, which was attended by more than 200 people, of the events leading up to the decision to arrest the officer.
Butts told the noisy meeting attended by up to 150 people: “The number of you here is an indication of how important it is to you to hear about the progress of our investigation.” On Friday, police started forensic examination at the scene, which was completed 24 hours later. Independent witnesses were located and the car sent away for forensic examination.
She said a witness appeal would take place on Friday morning in the street where the shooting took place. On Saturday, officers involved in the intelligence-led operation gave their initial accounts of what happened and Butts said “the officers were warned about conferring with each other”.
Scotland Yard said that the officer was suspended from duty on Wednesday. By Sunday, barely 48 hours after the shooting, Butts said investigators from the IPCC made a key decision. “On Sunday there was evidence to indicate that a potential criminal offence may have been committed by the officer in his use of lethal force. We therefore made the decision to begin a criminal homicide investigation,” she said.
In a statement released in reaction to the news of the officer’s arrest, Met police deputy assistant commissioner, Peter Terry, said: “As police officers, we are all fully aware that we will be asked to account for our actions. We are not exempt from the law and would not wish to be. Chief superintendent Victor Olisa, borough commander for Haringey, confirmed Met databases hold no information Baker had gang affiliations, saying: “They don’t indicate Jermaine was a gang member.”
“In these difficult circumstances we continue to offer every possible support to the officer, and their family, and to the officer’s colleagues. Baker’s family have been dismayed by claims in some media reports and the meeting was told Baker had been linked to gangs which do not exist.
“All of the officers who took part in the operation on Friday 11 December, were doing a job, one that we as senior officers in the MPS asked of them.” Floral tributes remained at the scene of the shooting. One card contained a tribute and then a reference to “NPK boys”, a gang called Northumberland Park Killers, named after an area of Tottenham.
Terry said that his thoughts – and those of his colleagues – were with Baker’s family. The public meeting was sometimes raucous and tense, with Met assistant commissioner Helen King shouted down.
He stressed that his officers had a difficult job to do. “Every day in London, our armed officers willingly respond to dangerous situations, as we call upon them to deal with some of the most high risk situations there are in policing. She was reprimanded by Pastor Nims Obunge from the Peace Alliance, co-chairing the meeting, after she suggested a friend of Baker’s come in and witness police firearms training.
“This requires those armed officers having the confidence to make the most difficult of decisions, often in split seconds. The man, called Josh, told the meeting: “Jermaine was shot while sleeping in the car.” Butts said she did not know if this was the case.
“Now, more than ever before, our armed officers provide an invaluable service in keeping Londoners and their own unarmed colleagues safe. We rely upon on them to provide this, quite frankly unique, policing role. The meeting showed a chasm between the police and sections of the community. But they, the armed officer and the police face months of waiting until answers emerge.
“We will continue to give our armed officers support and reassurance to ensure they have the confidence to keep fulfilling this crucial role.” In a statement, Met police deputy assistant commissioner, Peter Terry, said: “In these difficult circumstances we continue to offer every possible support to the officer, and their family, and to the officer’s colleagues.
“All of the officers who took part in the operation on Friday 11 December were doing a job, one that we as senior officers in the MPS asked of them.”
Terry stressed that his officers had a difficult job to do. After last month’s Paris terror attacks police chiefs believe they need more firearms officers, which require officers to volunteer to carry a gun: “Now, more than ever before, our armed officers provide an invaluable service in keeping Londoners and their own unarmed colleagues safe. We rely upon on them to provide this, quite frankly unique, policing role.”
Police chiefs will fear officers will refuse to volunteer to carry a gun to express their disagreement at the treatment of the armed officer.