Investigation Update: Streatham High Road terror attack

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting by Metropolitan Police officers of 20-year-old Sudesh Amman during a terrorism incident in south London on Sunday 2 February 2020 is progressing well.

Our investigation, which began following a referral from the MPS on 2 February, is examining the circumstances of the fatal shooting and the actions and decisions including the use of lethal force of the officers involved. We will also be examining what information the police had and the action they took following Mr Amman’s release from prison on 23 January until he was fatally shot shortly after attacking two people with a knife.

The IOPC has a duty to investigate deaths following police contact, including fatal police shootings.

It is important to stress that no individual police officers are under investigation. All officers involved are being treated as witnesses.

We are working closely with the police to ensure our investigation does not impact on their ability to conduct their enquiries into this attack.

MPS counter terrorism officers and its Directorate of Professional Standards are assisting us to secure, access and review a range of evidence.

Our investigators attended the scene in Streatham High Road on 2 February to begin gathering evidence and to review the scene with police. The officers involved provided their initial accounts on the day of the incident and have now provided more detailed accounts. At this stage we have established that two officers from the MPS discharged a total of six shots.

One bullet penetrated a supermarket window and another bullet penetrated a window at a pharmacy. A woman sustained minor injuries consistent with having been caused by flying glass.

A post mortem was carried out on Tuesday 4 February. IOPC staff were in attendance and we await the pathologist’s preliminary report. We will be liaising with the Coroner.

IOPC Director for London Sal Naseem said:

“Our thoughts are with all of those affected by the events of 2nd February. I would like to pay tribute to the police officers involved in responding to this attack and to those members of the public who assisted those injured.

“Our role in these circumstances is to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and we will be providing our evidence and an investigation report to the Coroner and the Metropolitan Police in due course. It is also important that we establish what information the police had and how they responded to it in the days after Sudesh Amman’s release and prior to his death.

“We are liaising with the Metropolitan Police and working hard to ensure our investigation into the fatal shooting is completed as quickly as possible while ensuring the police are able to complete their enquiries into this attack.”

We are conducting a separate independent investigation into a road traffic incident involving a Metropolitan Police car which collided with two vehicles while responding to the terror attack. Two people received minor injuries. As the collision occurred after the attack it is not being considered as part of the investigation into the death of Sudesh Amman.