Siege gunman had police bullet wound in head
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The gunman whose death brought to an end one of Britain's longest-running armed sieges had two bullet wounds in the head, one of which had been fired by police, a post-mortem examination revealed yesterday.
But last night Scotland Yard denied firing the shot that killed Eli Hall, 32, who had barricaded himself inside his flat in Hackney, east London, since Boxing Day.
The Metropolitan police said it believed Hall shot himself on Thursday after being wounded in the mouth by police during an exchange of gunfire. The post-mortem results showed the mouth wound was "not life-threatening", a statement said.
Police discovered Hall's charred body on Friday, during a "controlled search" of the bedsit. At first they suspected he had died in a fire he lit inside the flat after dousing it in petrol.
Hall was pinned inside his flat for 15 days after firing at police who tried to remove his car. He had vowed not to be taken alive and held a man hostage for 11 days.
In a statement, Hall's aunt, who had tried to persuade her nephew to end the siege, said: "Words cannot express the grief. My nephew could not see the future ahead of him, therefore he took the only way that he knew. It is the waste of a young life."
Hall was wanted by police in connection with the attempted shooting of a police officer in central London last August and a similar incident in Hackney in December.
Detectives are investigating a link between Hall and the theft of 19 Browning Army handguns stolen nearly three years ago from barracks in Wiltshire, and possibly used in the siege, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.