Sheku charged at nurse’s car… then she fought to save his life
Resuscitation bid in A&E after fleeing man wielding ‘big knife’
A NURSE told a public inquiry she fought to save the life of Sheku Bayoh in hospital on the same day he had charged at her car as she drove to work.
Linda Lambert yesterday said she had fled earlier that morning after Mr Bayoh approached her carrying a knife.
She added that she later treated Mr Bayoh after he had been restrained by police officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife.
Miss Lambert recalled that when she saw Mr Bayoh was carrying a large knife she ‘just took off and drove’ across a mini roundabout.
She told Angela Grahame, QC, the senior counsel at the inquiry into Mr Bayoh’s death on May 3, 2015: ‘He was charging at my car with his arms flailing about. He was frightening and I felt like I had to get away.’
She went on to tell a 999 call handler: ‘He was trying to stop me. When I realised what he had in his hands I just drove.’
When asked to describe him she said: ‘He’s a black man with a white T-shirt on and he’s carrying a big, big knife. I just carried on driving. I’m at work. I work in the hospital.’
On the same day, Miss Lambert was working a shift as a staff nurse at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy when Mr Bayoh was sent to the resuscitation unit.
She was one of the hospital staff who fought to save his life.
Mr Bayoh had been brought into accident and emergency by ambulance. Miss Lambert told the inquiry: ‘I recognised him as the guy I had just seen in the street.’
She said the 31-year-old arrived handcuffed and unresponsive and had received CPR from ambulance crews and police officers.
Miss Lambert added that the handcuffs were removed in ‘seconds’, and that there had been problems getting the ‘thumper’ – a chest compression machine – around Mr Bayoh’s chest. ‘The first time the thumper was on too low on his chest and on the second occasion the clips weren’t successfully applied,’ she said.
They had continued with manual CPR. Miss Lambert could not recall any injuries sustained by Mr Bayoh but said they could be caused by CPR. She told the inquiry she was with Mr Bayoh until he was pronounced dead.
Earlier the inquiry heard evidence from Alan Pearson, who was driving with his wife when Mr Bayoh was first seen in the town’s Hayfield area at around 7am.
She had told him: ‘That guy’s got a knife.’ But Mr Pearson said: ‘I thought, “Don’t be daft, it’s 7am on Sunday morning”.’
His wife asked him to go back and see what was going on so after dropping her off, Mr Pearson returned to where they had last seen Mr Bayoh.
Mr Pearson said it looked like Mr Bayoh was flagging down a taxi.
‘It looked like he then tried to strike the top of the taxi as if either hitting it, or almost as though the taxi wouldn’t stop for him,’ said Mr Pearson.
‘Once the taxi sped off he did what anybody would do, he turned to face the taxi and face me, although not looking at me.
‘When he turned around he put his hands out, palms up, that’s when I saw what looked like a knife in his right hand.’
He said he then drove in a different direction before waving down traffic and telling motorists: ‘That guy’s got a knife.’
A 999 call was played. Mr Pearson had called Mr Bayoh ‘a big coloured guy’ but he said: ‘I should have said he was a black man. At the time it just came out.’
Dashcam, CCTV and mobile phone footage were played which showed vehicles turning around in front of Mr Bayoh.
Simon Rowe, a taxi driver, said he saw Mr Bayoh carrying a knife about 20 metres (65ft) away. He told Miss Grahame that Mr Bayoh was ‘walking with purpose’.
‘[He was] not strolling, [it was] like he had somewhere to be or somewhere to go, is the best way to describe it.’
Constable Kara Ferrier, who at the time was an intelligence officer, told the inquiry she found a message during her research dated January 16, 2015, saying the terror threat to police personnel had been raised to severe. It was sent to all serving officers.
The inquiry is to examine the immediate circumstances leading to the death of Mr Bayoh, how the police dealt with the aftermath, the following investigation, and whether race was a factor.
The inquiry, before Lord Bracadale, continues.
‘I felt like I had to get away’