11 September 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Azelle inquiry must answer tough questions

by: Helen Shaw
published: 4 September 2012

The public inquiry into the fatal shooting by Metropolitan police of Azelle Rodney opened on Monday.

This is the first time a public inquiry under the 2005 Inquiries Act has been commissioned to examine a death involving police use of lethal force – such deaths are normally scrutinised at an inquest in front of a jury.

Susan Alexander, Rodney’s mother, together with the other members of his family, have already waited more than seven years for answers to their questions. Rodney was shot six times at point blank range while sitting in a car that had been stopped by officers.

6 September 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Two police officers prosecuted over mentally ill man’s death

originally by: The Guardian
published: 6 September 2012

Two police officers are to be prosecuted for misconduct in public office after a 52-year-old man died while under police restraint.

PCs Maurice Leigh and Neil Bowdery are to appear in court in connection with the death of Colin Holt, who died from positional asphyxia at his home in Gillingham, Kent, on 30 August 2010. The summonses to Medway magistrates court on 8 October follow an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Holt’s death occurred after staff at Medway Maritime hospital called police to report that Holt, who had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, was missing.

29 August 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Why did police shoot dead an unarmed man 7 years ago?

by: Defend the Right to Protest
published: 29 August 2012

Police officers have shot dead 41 men and one woman in the past 15 years. Some of the names on that list, Mark Duggan, Jean Charles de Menezes and Mark Saunders, have become household names after the controversies surrounding their deaths were exposed.

Another name on that list, Azelle Rodney, is not engrained into the public consciousness. But, with a public inquiry into his death due to open on Monday, seven years after he was shot at close range six times by an officer known only as E7, it could soon be.

Mr Rodney, a 24-year-old black man, was in the back of a Volkswagen Golf when it was stopped by three police vehicles carrying 14 specialist firearm officers from the Met’s elite C019 armed unit in April 2005.