A major drugs player or respected father of four?

Details of the alleged gangster background of the man whose shooting by police trying to arrest him triggered the riots emerged today. Police sources described him as "major player" who was heavily involved in criminality in Tottenham.

Associates of Mark Duggan, 29, suggested he had formed the Star Gang, an offshoot of the notorious Man Dem Crew thought to have been behind some of this weekend's violence.

Another wrote on Twitter that Duggan had "lived by the gun" and caused "grief" to local people.

Other residents claimed he had been a crack cocaine dealer, who often carried a gun and that it was a dispute over drugs and a woman that had led to the fatal stabbing of his 23-year-old cousin Kevin Easton in a nightclub in Bow this year.

His family insist that Mr Duggan, who grew up on the Broadwater Farm estate, was a good father and a respected member of the local community. His fiancée Semone Wilson claimed he was determined not to go to jail and added: "Mark was known to police, but he had never been sent down. When he was remanded last time, he said he hated jail and never wanted to go back there."

Mr Duggan was said to be also known as "Starrish Mark". He had been with Ms Wilson, 29, since the age of 17. She has two sons, aged 10 and seven, and a baby daughter by him. He also had a child by another woman.