A forensics officer at the scene in Kirkstall Gardens, Streatham Hill, south London, where a man was shot by armed officers from the Metropolitan Police following a pursuit on Monday evening
THE Metropolitan Police is under pressure to explain why armed officers fatally shot a man in his twenties in south London on Monday night.
The force said officers had pursued a “suspect vehicle.”
The car was stopped when police deliberately collided with the vehicle at 9.51pm in Kirkstall Gardens, a residential street in the Streatham Hill area. A firearm was then deployed.
Friends gathering at the scene today told reporters that the deceased man had a baby on the way and questioned whether he had been armed at the time of the shooting.
One witness, who lives on nearby New Park Road, told the PA news agency that he had seen the police car crash into the driver’s vehicle.
“Another police car came in behind him and they had him locked in at the bottom of Kirkstall Gardens,” he said.
“The car was immobile when he was shot.”
The Met said in a statement that the man had received first aid from officers at the scene but had been pronounced dead in hospital at 12.16am.
The incident is under investigation by the Independent Office of Police Conduct.
Lambeth council leader Claire Holland said she was extremely concerned by the shooting and was seeking urgent answers from the police.
Local MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, writing on Twitter, also said that she was “very concerned” by the incident.
The Inquest charity, which offers support to families affected by deaths in police custody, said on social media that it would seek to contact the dead man’s family.
