Community leaders warned Tottenham police immediately before Saturday's rioting that a peaceful protest over the fatal shooting by officers of a local man could get out of control, it has emerged.
More than 100 people who demanded to see a senior officer at Tottenham police station feared that if they were still there by nightfall it could cause problems in an area with tensions running high.
"I told the chief inspector personally that we wanted to leave before nightfall. If he kept us hanging around after nightfall, it was going to be on his head. We couldn't guarantee it wouldn't get out of control," said Stafford Scott, a community organiser, who accompanied the family of the shot man, Mark Duggan.
"If a senior police officer had come to speak to us, we would have left. We arrived at 5pm, we had planned a one-hour silent protest. We were there until 9pm. Police were absolutely culpable. Had they been more responsive when we arrived at the police station, asking for a senior officer to talk with the family, we would have left the vicinity before the unrest started.
"It is unforgivable that police refused dialogue. We know the history here – how can Tottenham have a guy killed by police on Thursday, and resist requests for dialogue from the community 48 hours later?"
There were also claims that police were warned on Thursday evening and Friday morning by people with knowledge of Tottenham that there could be "significant" community reaction to Duggan's death.
Duggan's fiancee, Semone Wilson, 29, said the family had not wanted trouble, only answers. "When we were outside the police station last night we wanted someone to come out. We want some answers. I have not even told my children that he is dead because we cannot give them any answers."
Of the violence, Wilson said: "I am not happy about what has happened. We didn't want this trouble. We wanted some answers."
Shaun Hall, Duggan's older brother, said the family was "not condoning any kind of actions like that at all, or for this [action] to be taken in my brother's name". He appealed to people in the community who were frustrated and angry to "try and hold it down".
The family were "devastated" at his death, with "the most gruelling" thing for Duggan's parents being that nobody had officially informed them what had happened. He dismissed allegations that Duggan had shot at police as "rubbish".
The IPCC commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne met family members after accusations that they had been left unsupported and isolated since Thursday's shooting.
While Cerfontyne, who is running the independent investigation, is not thought to have met the family until Sunday, the IPCC – faced with criticism from the family – said it had been in regular contact.
Forensic examiners were slowly and painstakingly working their way through the crime scene as part of the police investigation. Officers from the homicide and serious crime command and specialist investigators from the public order branch were reviewing CCTV footage and taking witness statements.
