'Gun' held by shot man was a replica lighter

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Marksmen's manual says aim for the torso

Leading article: Tough controls on guns are in the police's own interests

The first frantic call to the police came at 3.05pm on Monday. A row had broken out on a south London street and a heavily built Rastafarian was brandishing a silver handgun.

Conscious of the recent spate of killings in which rival black drug gangsters have reduced parts of the capital to a shooting gallery, Scotland Yard immediately dispatched two marksmen, supported by local officers. But what took place in the 90 minutes that followed was a brutal reminder of the tide of gun-related violence on the streets of Britain's cities and has prompted renewed scrutiny of police's response to armed criminals.

The police marksmen arrived at Loughborough Road in Brixton, one of the most racially sensitive areas in Britain, to find the suspected gunman had fled. Minutes later, Derek Bennett was tracked down to nearby Crowhurst Close, in the once notorious Angell Town estate. Witnesses described how an armed response unit "screeched'' into the rundown Seventies estate and how two officers jumped out in pursuit.

Mr Bennett, a former traffic warden, leapt on to a walkway at a block of flats and ran up to a first-floor balcony. In apparent desperation, the 28-year-old threatened two male passers-bywith the gun. One of the hostages broke away, and as he ran down some steps towards the approaching armed officers, Mr Bennett is said to have pointed the pistol at the group of men.

He grabbed the second hostage, who stumbled to the ground, according to witnesses. By this time the police marksmen had moved closer and are reported to have called to Mr Bennett to put down his weapon. Shortly afterwards, one of the officers fired six shots from his Glock 17 self-loading 9mm pistol, hitting his target several times in the body.

The heavily bleeding man collapsed as residents emerged from the surrounding flats. Sherice Cabette, 16, who lives five doors away, said: "I saw one policeman standing up over the man and one, who had a gun, crouching down.

"The policeman with a gun was red in the face and appeared to be panicking, mumbling 'What have we done?'.

"The man was in a folded-up position and they pulled both his arms and dragged him until he was lying down on his back. They tried to take off his coat and they were struggling, so they got out a pair of scissors and cut the coat down the middle. I saw two wounds, one on each side of his body, which had gone right through his torso."Close to where the dying man lay was his "weapon" ­ a silver cigarette lighter in the shape of a gun. The victim was taken to King's College Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 4.26pm.

The shooting was the second involving the police in four days ­ the same number as in the previous 22 months.

In the first incident, Andrew Kernan, 37, a schizophrenic, was shot dead by officers from Merseyside Police while wielding a sword outside a pub in Liverpool last Thursday.

Both cases are being investigated by outside police forces, overseen by the independent Police Complaints Authority. The cases were in contrast to the overpowering of a gunman in Newcastle early yesterday. The man fired five shots at officers from the Northumbria force after holding up a petrol station but they did not return fire.

The two shootings have raised wider questions about the police's use of lethal firepower and the growing availability of replica and novelty guns. They also highlight the tensions and fears over the country's growing gun culture, in which firearms are increasingly seen as fashion accessories. An independent report published earlier this week said handguns were used in 3,685 offences nationally last year, compared with 2,648 in 1997, an increase of 40 per cent since the gun ban was introduced that year in response to the Dunblane tragedy.

Yesterday, roadsweepers were clearing away the sand which covered the spot where Mr Bennett died. The only remaining indication of what had happened was a yellow chalk outline where his cigarette lighter had fallen.

Campaigners leafleting the area to urge residents to rise up against the police and call for justice "by any means necessary'' were met with a tepid response. Calm prevailed.

Alex Owolade, a Lambeth Council housing department worker and member of the Movement For Justice, threatened to make Brixton a no-go area for police."This is legalised murder. Even if he had a weapon they didn't need to shoot him six times," he said.Last night Imran Khan, the lawyer known for his work with the family of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, agreed to take on the Bennett family case. He has written to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner asking for an apology and an explanation and a meeting with the family.

¿ The Home Secretary David Blunkett agreed yesterday to accept one of the key recommendations of the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, requiring the police to record the ethnic origin of every person they stop.

His decision was backed by the Association of Police Authorities (APA), which said it would be "a great step towards improving confidence in policing". At present, only "stops" which result in a search are recorded but a large-scale APA survey found strong public backing for extending this to include all people stopped on the streets or in their car.