First Fatality as London Riots Spread Across Britain

“Many of us have worked in this community for many years and we know the loving, generous and openhearted people with whom we share our daily lives are not the rioters who have destroyed so much.”

He added: “What has happened will not conquer the hope which is set before us. We will continue to share that hope with our neighbors and friends as we move to rebuild in Tottenham.”

(Reuters/Jon Boyle)

A police officer stands guard as firefighters work to extinguish the flames of a blazing store in Woolwich, southeast London, August 9, 2011. Rioting and looting spread across and beyond London on Monday as hooded youths set fire to cars and buildings, smashed shop windows and hurled bottles and stones at police in a third night of violence in Britain's worst unrest in decades.

 

Meanwhile Tottenham MP David Lammy urged people to "get behind" the police in policing the community to help people feel safe. He said: "It's certainly my job to ensure that the Independent Police Complaints Commission move as quickly as they can to establish what happened to Mark Duggan last Thursday.

"I have raised questions about why things were allowed to escalate as quickly as they did over so many hours without proper intervention, I think, by the police."

(Reuters/Toby Melville)

Cars burn on a street in Ealing, London August 9, 2011. Looting by groups of hooded youths spread to Ealing in west London and Camden in the north of the British capital late on Monday, the third night of violence which police have blamed on criminal thugs.

 

 Mark Duggan was killed by police last Thursday after a shoot-out when his taxi was stopped by officers. A vigil held by his family on Saturday turned violent and sparked the original riots in Tottenham, north London.

However, since then the riots have become much more widespread and commentators are now saying the riots taking place across Britain are not directly related to Duggan’s killing, but stems from a greater feeling of unrest in the nation.

(Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)

Police officers stand near a burnt out shop in Clapham Junction, in south London August 9, 2011. British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would recall parliament from its summer recess for a day on Thursday after rioting swept through London for three consecutive nights.

 

Reverend Nims Obunge, pastor of the local Freedom's Ark Church, who has been working with Duggan's relatives, said: "It's important that we allow the IPCC to tell us where this investigation's at. It's important we allow them to communicate whatever their findings are with the family.

"It's important that we don't run off with a report, but we make sure that whatever is reported is handled in an accurate and in a way that we can heal ourselves as a community and look for the way forward.
"Justice is important, but we don't know what justice is totally yet."

(Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)

A woman poses for a photograph as volunteers wait to clear-up after overnight disturbances in Clapham Junction, in south London August 9, 2011. British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would recall parliament from its summer recess for a day on Thursday after rioting swept through London for three consecutive nights.