A FOURTH man questioned about Wednesday night's killing of PC Patrick
Dunne was released on bail last night pending further inquiries, New
Scotland Yard said.
The man, not named, arrested in the early hours of Thursday while
driving north towards Leicester, was granted police bail until November
24.
But the man was rearrested immediately on behalf of West Midlands
Police, who want to interview him about an unrelated matter and are due
to collect him this morning.
Earlier yesterday, three other men, a Jamaican and two others born in
Britain, were released on police bail for a month after being arrested
in connection with murders of PC Dunne, 44, and William Danso, 31, in
Clapham, south west London.
New Scotland Yard said the man granted bail last night was first
detained by local police for an alleged traffic offence and was found to
be carrying a 9mm automatic handgun. Forensic tests were carried out on
the weapon.
The murders of PC Dunne and Mr Danso, and another fatal shooting on
Thursday in broad daylight in the busy Uxbridge Road in Shepherd's Bush,
west London, have heightened fears that well-armed drug gangs are
growing more violent and ruthless.
A post-mortem was carried out yesterday on the Shepherd's Bush victim,
identified as Mr Anthony Melhado, 29, of White City, west London.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Condon warned that vicious
gangsters were locked in a brutal struggle for control of the capital's
crack-cocaine trade. Mr Condon said these well-armed and ''desperate''
criminals were prepared to shoot ''indiscriminately'' in their ''turf
war'' over sales of crack.
Mr Condon also disclosed that a major operation was under way against
crack gangs in south London, where there have already been four
drugs-related murders this year.
PC Dunne had been advising a couple over a dispute with a third person
in Clapham on Wednesday night when he heard shots from across the road
and went to investigate. He confronted an armed gang and is believed to
have been shot from a distance of about 30 feet as he reached for his
radio. He died instantly.
Mr Danso, a Ghanaian working as a bouncer at local clubs and pop
concerts also was found dead at the scene from gunshot wounds. Police
found cannabis worth a few thousand pounds hidden in a box in the back
garden of Mr Danso's ground-floor flat and there is speculation that his
murder was a ''punishment'' prompted by a row over a drugs deal.
Meanwhile, senior detectives were stung by criticism that they had
misjudged the extent of the crack problem in south London when
disbanding their specialist intelligence unit and Operation Dalehouse.
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