Fatal police shooting of Streatham terrorist attacker – Metropolitan Police Service, February 2020

On Sunday 2 February 2020, a terrorist attacker was shot by armed surveillance officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) after he was seen to attack members of the public with a knife. He had been under police surveillance between Thursday 23 January until the date of his death, following his early release from a prison sentence for terrorism offences.

This matter was referred to us in February 2020 as a Death or Serious Injury (DSI) referral and was declared an independent investigation.

During our investigation, a volume of evidence was gathered. We reviewed relevant CCTV footage, body worn video footage and reviewed police radio transmissions. We obtained and analysed statements from both the officers involved and members of the public. We also examined a ballistic report from an explosive expert. We reviewed toxicology results and a post-mortem report from the pathologist.

We reviewed the decision making into the management of the terrorist attacker following his release and an on-going surveillance operation. The strategy put in place to manage him is subject to a separate report by us.

We compared the actions of the officers to relevant legislation, policing policies and training.

Our investigation concluded in January 2021. We waited until all external proceedings were complete before publishing any outcomes. The inquest concluded in August 2021 and determined the terrorist attacker was lawfully killed by police.

We found no indication that a person serving with the police may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner justifying the bringing of disciplinary proceedings by using force that was unnecessary, disproportionate or unreasonable in the circumstances.

We shared our findings with the Metropolitan Police Service. In our opinion, they were not required to make determinations because we were satisfied the report did not raise any performance issues.

Throughout the investigation, we carefully considered whether there were any opportunities for learning or improvement. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents. We did not identify any organisational learning from this investigation.