A 68-year-old man set upon as he tried to stamp out a fire during the London riots has died, Scotland Yard
says.
Richard Mannington Bowes, 68, was bashed, suffering head injuries, on a road in Ealing west London on Monday night.
Scotland Yard says he was attacked about 10.45pm after remonstrating with teenagers who were setting fire to two industrial bins outside a shopping centre.
Officers who went to his aid were pelted with missiles.
Bowes, of Ealing, was placed on a life-support machine following the attack, which took place as violence spread through the capital.
He died just before midnight on Thursday, Scotland Yard said.
"This was a brutal incident that resulted in the senseless killing of an innocent ma," said Detective Chief Inspector John McFarlane, of the Met's Homicide and Serious Crime Command.
"I still need the assistance of the community who may have witnessed the attack on Richard, to come forward and provide information or images they may have recorded on mobile devices.
This information could be crucial in catching his killer."
Police have issued two CCTV images of a man suspected of carrying out the assault and said he was actively engaged in the rioting and looting that devastated the area.
Detectives said the suspect was appeared to be known to a considerable number of youths and young men who were also in the area.
The wave of riots across London and in some other English cities was triggered by the death of a man in a police shooting last week.
Mark Duggan, 29, was killed by armed officers last Thursday in Tottenham, north London, after they stopped the taxi he was in during an attempted arrest as part of Operation Trident.
A probe into Duggan's death heard on Tuesday that he was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest.
The riots claimed the lives of a man who was shot during disturbances in Croydon, south London, on Monday and three men who were struck by a car as they defended their property from looters in Birmingham on Tuesday.
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