Police ‘were half a mile away’ when Cardiff crash teens died
UNDER-FIRE police chiefs insisted last night they had nothing to hide following a row over their actions in the run-up to a crash that killed two teenagers – and sparked hours of rioting.
As more footage emerged of a police van apparently pursuing Harvey Evans, 15, and Kyrees Sullivan, 16, just two minutes before they were fatally injured, South Wales Police revealed the vehicle had actually been half a mile away when the crash happened.
Releasing a detailed timeline of the moments before Monday’s tragedy in Cardiff, Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Bacon insisted the force was being ‘ honest and direct’.
She said she was ‘aware of concerns in the local community’, but the sequence of events had been confirmed by tracking data and CCTV, adding that the van’s lights and siren had not been activated.
She refused, however, to explain why the van had apparently been following the pair who were riding an electric bike, saying it was now for the police watchdog to establish ‘whether any pursuit has taken place’. She also condemned Monday’s scenes of youths torching cars and pelting her officers with missiles in the hours after the crash, saying ‘nothing can excuse the level of violence and disorder which followed’.
On Tuesday, the force’s Labour police and crime commissioner Alun Michael hit out at what he branded ‘rumours’ on social media that a police chase preceded the double tragedy, telling the BBC that ‘ wasn’t the case’. But that was apparently contradicted by CCTV footage thought to have sparked Monday’s shocking scenes in the deprived Ely neighbourhood, where as many as 150 youths went on the rampage.
Taken minutes before the crash, it showed a police van driving less than two seconds behind the boys, who were riding together on a £4,000 electric bike. further footage emerged yesterday showing the van barely a second behind the boys.
Locals claimed the pair had used a well-known ‘escape route’ to get away – dodging through bollards just seconds before the horrific crash.
Ms Bacon revealed to reporters that the teenagers had been riding towards the police van at 5.59pm before turning around and going the other way. The collision – which police believe did not involve any other vehicle – happened at about 6.02pm. At that point the police van was half a mile away.
Based on the police timeline, the fatal crash happened between 85 seconds and 109 seconds after the van was last captured driving behind the bike.
Asked why the force hadn’t confirmed the van was following the boys sooner, Ms Bacon insisted the situation had been ‘very unclear’.
Announcing yesterday that it was launching an investigation, the independent Office for Police Conduct said its probe would be ‘ examining any interaction between the police and the boys’.
Amid continuing anger in Ely yesterday, Harvey’s family released a statement appealing for ‘peace within the community’.
Saying their hearts were ‘ truly broken’, they added that they wanted ‘the answers we so desperately need to lay Harvey to rest’.
Kyrees’s family described him as a ‘loving, caring handsome young man’ who had been best friends with Harvey ‘ since they were young’, adding that the boys ‘went everywhere together’.
Last night Welsh first Minister Mark Drakeford condemned the violence in Ely and said the independent investigation into South Wales Police was ‘absolutely the right thing to do’.