Bike crash victims had been ‘chased to their death by South Wales Police’, aunt says
T
he aunt of one of many teenage boys who died in a street site visitors accident on an electrical bike in Cardiff has accused South Wales Police of inflicting their deaths.
Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, died on Monday night time, shortly after they had been captured on CCTV being adopted by a police van.
Speaking to the BBC after a vigil for the pair, Harvey’s aunt Hayley Murphy mentioned “they were two children who were chased to their death by South Wales Police”.
Ms Murphy additional alleged police had arrested her nephew 30 occasions over the previous two years however by no means charged him.
In two separate situations, she mentioned police had visited Harvey’s dwelling over issues he couldn’t have had something to do with.
On the primary event, the household had doorbell video footage displaying he was dwelling on the time; the second time he was on vacation so “wasn’t even in the country”.
On Monday night time, Ms Murphy mentioned Harvey had been giving his greatest pal a raise dwelling on the bike that had been an early sixteenth birthday current after they encountered police.
“Harvey had only just had this bike and didn’t want to lose it. He turned back and the police gave chase,” she alleged.
She mentioned she had waited on the police barrier along with her sister, Harvey’s mom, for greater than two hours that night time “begging them to tell us if they were alive or dead, and they wouldn’t tell us nothing”.
Ms Murphy added that law enforcement officials “came to the house around four hours after it happened, about four hours in total, and they said ‘there have been two fatalities but we cannot confirm who they are’.”
“We knew it was Harvey, but we didn’t get told until the family liaison officer came at around two o’clock the following day,” she mentioned.
“How can you treat a family of a young boy like that?”
The household claimed that they had no help for 17 hours – which they blamed on the riots which broke out after the boys’ deaths.
Harvey’s grandmother Dawn Rees mentioned: “This is what we couldn’t cope with because they were lying on the floor.
“It was all down to the riots. We had no support for 17 hours and it was because of the riots.”
South Wales Police informed the BBC in a press release they “cannot comment any further” because of the ongoing investigation by the power and Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
A spokesperson for the Welsh Ambulance Service mentioned their involvement on the scene concluded earlier than 8pm.
Violent clashes and dysfunction broke out in Ely on Monday night time after CCTV footage emerged of a marked South Wales Police van following the youngsters as they rode the Sur-Ron electrical bike.
The rioting noticed 9 folks arrested and left 15 law enforcement officials injured.
The claims of a pursuit had been denied by Alun Michael, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales, however the power has since confirmed a van was following Kyrees and Harvey.
The IOPC has launched an investigation into the circumstances.
Around a thousand folks attended a vigil for Harvey and Kyrees on Friday night time, releasing balloons, fireworks and flares in reminiscence of the boys.
Since Monday, lots of of floral tributes and messages have been left on the scene of the accident in Snowden Road.
Earlier, the IOPC appealed for witnesses who could have seen the moments earlier than the crash.
It mentioned the investigation was inspecting the “nature of the police interaction” with Kyrees and Harvey and the “appropriateness” of the officers’ choices and actions.
The watchdog can be contemplating whether or not the law enforcement officials’ actions within the van constituted a pursuit, and whether or not the interplay between the officers and the boys was “reported appropriately by the officers prior to and following the collision”.