Nurse ‘scared’ by knife man Sheku Bayoh tells probe how she tried to save his life
A NURSE who was scared in her car by a man with a knife fought to save his life in hospital later after he was restrained by police officers, a public inquiry has heard.
Sheku Bayoh died on Sunday, May 3, 2015 after he was detained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife. Linda Limbert yesterday told the inquiry into his death that he approached her car in Hayfield Road as she was driving to work at the town’s Victoria Hospital.
She said she was “very frightened”, and told Angela Grahame, QC, the inquiry’s senior counsel: “He was charging at my car with his arms flailing about.”
Ms Limbert said she had seen him with a knife in his hand, and as he approached the car she drove off.
In nearby Hendry Road she called 999 and told the call handler: “He was trying to stop me. When I realised what he had in his hands I just drove.”
On that day, Ms Limbert was a staff nurse at the hospital. Later that morning, Mr Bayoh was sent to the resuscitation unit and she was one of the medical staff who helped in the bid to save his life.
He was brought in to the accident and emergency department by ambulance, and Ms Limbert told the inquiry: “I don’t know him, but I recognised him as the guy I had just seen.”
When Mr Bayoh, 31, arrived in hospital he was handcuffed and unresponsive, she said, and had continuing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) from ambulance and police crews at the scene.
Ms Limbert said the handcuffs had to be removed, but did not interfere, and was with Mr Bayoh until he was declared dead.
She said she could not recall any injuries sustained to him, but said CPR and gaining IV access can cause injuries.
Earlier, the inquiry, which is being held in Edinburgh, heard that Alan Pearson was driving with his wife in his car when Mr Bayoh was first seen in Templehall Avenue in the Hayfield area of Kirkcaldy at around 7am.
Mr Pearson said his wife “saw a man walking along the street with what appeared to be a knife in his hand”.
He said: “She says to me: ‘That guy’s got a knife,’ and I thought, ‘Don’t be daft, it’s 7am on Sunday.’”
After Mr Pearson dropped his wife off at his sister-in-law’s house, he then started to make his way home, and in Hayfield Place saw the man look like he was trying to stop a passing taxi. Mr Pearson said it looked like the man had banged on the car’s roof.
“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,” he said. “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.”
Mr Pearson then turned his car around and drove in a different direction.
He said the knife was “maybe six or seven inches”, but when he was shown a knife on a container at the inquiry, Mr Pearson said he could not recognise the blade being used as evidence, and that he only saw it from a distance.
He said he warned another driver, and then in Hendry Road called 999 and told the call handler: “There’s a guy in the middle of the street with a knife in his hands.”
In his brief telephone call with the 999 operator, he was told a blade size.
“I never told the handler the size of the knife at the time,” Mr Pearson said. “The call handler says ‘nine-inch blade’, but I never said the size of the knife.”
Dashcam and mobile phone footage was played in the court, which showed Mr Bayoh walking in the street with vehicles turning around in front on him.
The inquiry is to examine the immediate circumstances leading to the death of Mr Bayoh, how police dealt with the aftermath, the following investigation, and whether race was a factor.
The inquiry continues.
He was trying to stop me. When I realised what he had in his hands I just drove