Jurors at the inquest into the death of Mark Duggan have been told they are on a "quest to find the truth".
They will determine whether he was lawfully killed when he was shot by armed police, sparking a wave of riots in England.
More than two years after the 29-year-old died, the full inquest into his death at the hands of Scotland Yard marksmen began at the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday.
Mr Duggan was killed when he was shot by police who stopped the taxi in which he was travelling in Tottenham, north London, in August 2011.
The coroner, Judge Keith Cutler, told the jury: "It is a quest to find the truth. This may sound rather grand but it is in fact an important task and one which may take us a little time."
Several relatives and loved ones of Mr Duggan attended the hearing, and his mother, Pamela Duggan, left in tears during the afternoon session.
Judge Cutler said the jury would have to answer a number of questions, including whether Mr Duggan was lawfully killed.
"It may be the case that the heart of your considerations will be whether Mark Duggan was killed lawfully or unlawfully," the coroner said.
"There is no dispute that Mark Duggan sadly died as a result of a bullet fired by a police officer. You will hear evidence from that officer."
He added: "We will no doubt all listen with particular care to his explanations for his actions."
The inquest, which is expected to last eight to 10 weeks, was adjourned.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article