Azelle Rodney’s killer is cross-examined at inquiry

The inquiry into the police shooting of Azelle Rodney is due to finish hearing evidence this week.

Last week it heard from the police officer who fired eight bullets at Azelle. Six of them hit him. The officer was cross-examined last week by the barrister Leslie Thomas, representing Azelle’s family.

The officer fired the shots in quick sucession. All eight had been fired in just a few seconds. Thomas put to the officer, known only as E7, “What would you have expected Azelle Rodney to have done, between shot number one and shot number two, for you to have stopped shooting him?  Tell us.”

E7 replied that, “I would continue to shoot until I was satisfied that he was no longer a threat to my colleagues.”

The first two shots that hit Azelle were non-fatal. E7 opened fire less than a second after his car stopped alongside the one Azelle was travelling in.

Susan Alexander, Azelle’s mother, has been fighting to find out the truth of what happened to her son since he was killed in 2005. She walked out of the inquest while E7 was giving evidence saying, “How many more lies are you going to tell?”

Siân Ruddick

New campaigns launched against injustice

Over 80 people came to the launch of the Northern Police Monitoring Project in Manchester’s Moss Side last week.

The meeting brought together campaigns for people who have died in police custody, Hillsborough justice and Defend the Right to Protest among others.

Carol Duggan, the aunt of Mark Duggan who was killed by police in Tottenham last August, called on campaigns to “merge together for peace and justice”.

Some 50 people came to a packed meeting organised by Right to Resist in Birmingham.

It brought together campaigns for Talha Ahsan, Babar Ahmad and others, to fight against deaths in police custody, stop and searches, extraditions and other concerns.

The meeting unanimously voted to set up a new campaign to bring the different struggles together.