What IS the truth behind Cardiff riot?
Police said at first they DIDN’T follow e-bike boys who died minutes later in housing estate crash. These photos tell a different story, so...
CARDIFF remained on edge last night after police confirmed they had been following two boys before they died in an electric bike crash, sparking hours of rioting.
Cars were torched and 15 officers injured in horrific scenes on Monday night after claims that Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, were being ‘chased’ by police.
Initially Labour’s police and crime commissioner for the area dismissed the claims, telling the BBC that allegations of a police chase were ‘rumours’ circling on social media. However CCTV footage from minutes before the crash then emerged, showing a police van driving just a second behind the boys.
Last night South Wales Police admitted that officers had been following the boys and said it had referred itself to the Independent Office for Policing Conduct (IOPC). But Chief Superintendent Martyn Stone insisted that there were no police vehicles on the street when the fatal collision took place.
The teenagers, from the suburb of Ely where the crash took place, were known for riding the e-bike around the streets despite a clampdown on illegal riding. Friends described them as ‘motorbike
‘Community doesn’t feel safe now’
heads’ who had grown up together on the tough estate in the west of Cardiff and were ‘just enjoying themselves’ when they died.
Harvey’s godmother, Bridy Bool, said Harvey was ‘ a typical 15-year- old’ who ‘loved motorbikes, bikes and football’ and who had eaten dinner with his mother Nadine just ten minutes before he died.
She insisted the boys had done nothing to spark a police ‘chase’, adding: ‘They were bare-faced innocent children.’
The footage showing the police van following the boys was reportedly filmed on Frank Road in Ely – about half a mile from the site of the crash on Snowden Road.
The clip is time- stamped at just after 5.59pm, with the fatal collision reported to police at 6.03pm.
It was quickly circulated on social media and friends of the boys’ families confirmed yesterday that they believed it showed them sharing the £4,000 e-bike. Neither appeared to be wearing a helmet.
One resident said: ‘ Those boys were chased – it is all there on video for us all to see. That is why people took to the streets to do what they did. Loads of people have seen it and the police are just trying to cover themselves.’
Up to 150 thugs went on the rampage after the crash in scenes which were branded ‘appalling and completely unacceptable’ by Downing Street.
Footage livestreamed on YouTube showed thugs launching fireworks, rocks, paving slabs and even a door at the police before charging at them until 3am. Young men were also seen ripping off their shirts and covering their faces as fires raged in the street.
Fifteen police officers were injured – 11 of whom required hospital treatment – while one person is understood to have been attacked because rioters thought they were an undercover officer.
South Wales Police said ‘a number of arrests’ have taken place, with more expected.
Local resident Ahmad Abdullah, 34, told the BBC he had heard rioters saying ‘they would not stop until they killed a police officer’.
The father- of-three, whose taxi was among the vehicles damaged, added: ‘The people in this community don’t feel safe now. We feel it could escalate at any time.’
Jane Palmer watched from a window as people set fire to her car, saying: ‘I’m disabled so now I’m trapped without my car. Why are they doing this? It’s just silly.’
Before the CCTV emerged, South Wales Assistant Chief Constable Mark Travis said residents of Ely had been left ‘frightened by the actions of this large group who were intent on causing crime and disorder’. The level of violence towards emergency services and the damage to property and vehicles was totally unacceptable,’ he added.
A clean-up operation was under way yesterday, with police on high alert over fears of more violence.
Initially Alun Michael, Labour’s Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales, said the ‘trigger’ was false rumours of police involvement in the double tragedy.
‘It would appear that there were rumours, and those rumours became rife, of a police chase,
which wasn’t the case,’ he told Radio 4’s Today programme.
‘And I think it illustrates the speed with which rumours can run around with the activity that goes on on social media nowadays, and that events can get out of hand.’
Yesterday Heledd Fychan, Plaid Cymru Senedd member for South Wales Central, called for a full investigation to ‘ensure peace is restored and that this never happens again’. Cardiff Council leader Huw Thomas said people were ‘deeply worried and concerned’ and appealed for ‘calm’.