Scotland Yard was rocked on Thursday by the arrest of a police marksman who shot a suspect dead near a London court.

Jermaine Baker, 28, died last Friday morning after a single bullet struck him in the neck as he sat in a car 100 yards from Wood Green crown court in north London.

The Guardian has learned that Baker, claimed by some media reports to have been a gangster, did not feature on the Metropolitan police’s databases of gang members.



It was revealed on Thursday that a homicide investigation, which is focusing on the armed officer, is looking at how far Baker was from a weapon allegedly found inside the car.



Two other men in the car have been charged with plotting to help release two prisoners from a van as they were being brought to Wood Green crown court that day for sentencing.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating Baker’s death and the actions of officers in a criminal homicide investigation, which saw the armed officer suspended from duty on Wednesday.

Baker was from Tottenham, north London, which for decades has had tense relationships with the police and has seen riots, deaths at police hands, an officer killed and battles through the courts.

IPCC commissioner Cindy Butts told a public meeting on Thursday that the officer who shot the suspect had been arrested and interviewed under criminal caution on Thursday afternoon. The IPCC declined to say what the officer had been arrested for.



Butts stressed the arrest did not mean the officer would be charged.



Baker was in a black Audi at the scene and the IPCC said its investigators had discovered a “non-police issue firearm” in the car. The other men in the car face charges over an imitation weapon, according to the Met.

IPCC commissioner Cindy Butts speaks at a meeting about the shooting of Jermaine Baker by armed police. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters

Baker had been shot while in the vehicle and Butts declined to say where investigators suspect either the firearm or Baker were as those issues are “the focus of our investigation”.

Butts told the meeting that no relevant CCTV footage had been identified. Officers were not wearing body cameras, which drew repeated criticism from the meeting and shouts of “Why?”

Butts told the meeting, which was attended by more than 200 people, of the events leading up to the decision to arrest the officer.

On Friday, police started forensic examination at the scene, which was completed 24 hours later. Independent witnesses were located and the car sent away for forensic examination.



On Saturday, officers involved in the intelligence-led operation gave their initial accounts of what happened and Butts said “the officers were warned about conferring with each other”.

By Sunday, barely 48 hours after the shooting, Butts said investigators from the IPCC made a key decision. “On Sunday there was evidence to indicate that a potential criminal offence may have been committed by the officer in his use of lethal force. We therefore made the decision to begin a criminal homicide investigation,” she said.





Chief superintendent Victor Olisa, borough commander for Haringey, confirmed Met databases hold no information Baker had gang affiliations, saying: “They don’t indicate Jermaine was a gang member.”

Baker’s family have been dismayed by claims in some media reports and the meeting was told Baker had been linked to gangs which do not exist.

Floral tributes remained at the scene of the shooting. One card contained a tribute and then a reference to “NPK boys”, a gang called Northumberland Park Killers, named after an area of Tottenham.

The public meeting was sometimes raucous and tense, with Met assistant commissioner Helen King shouted down.

Met assistant commissioner Helen King and chief superintendent Victor Olisa close their eyes during a prayer at the meeting regarding the shooting of Jermaine Baker by an armed police officer. Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters

She was reprimanded by Pastor Nims Obunge from the Peace Alliance, co-chairing the meeting, after she suggested a friend of Baker’s come in and witness police firearms training.

The man, called Josh, told the meeting: “Jermaine was shot while sleeping in the car.” Butts said she did not know if this was the case.

The meeting showed a chasm between the police and sections of the community. But they, the armed officer and the police face months of waiting until answers emerge.

In a statement, Met police deputy assistant commissioner, Peter Terry, said: “In these difficult circumstances we continue to offer every possible support to the officer, and their family, and to the officer’s colleagues.

“All of the officers who took part in the operation on Friday 11 December were doing a job, one that we as senior officers in the MPS asked of them.”

Terry stressed that his officers had a difficult job to do. After last month’s Paris terror attacks police chiefs believe they need more firearms officers, which require officers to volunteer to carry a gun: “Now, more than ever before, our armed officers provide an invaluable service in keeping Londoners and their own unarmed colleagues safe. We rely upon on them to provide this, quite frankly unique, policing role.”

Police chiefs will fear officers will refuse to volunteer to carry a gun to express their disagreement at the treatment of the armed officer.