Ely Riot: Police boss again insists boys killed in Cardiff crash were ‘not being chased’

A police boss has insisted again, two teenagers who died after a crash in the Cardiff suburb of Ely, were not being chased by police, when the collision happened.

South Wales Police said, during a press conference on Tuesday, they would be investigating CCTV footage, which showed two people on an electric bike, being followed by a force van just moments before the crash, which sparked riots.^[1]

The boys were named locally as Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and 15-year-old Harvey Evans on Tuesday afternoon. Friends of the two boys, who were from the Ely area, said they were riding a Sur-Ron electric bike without helmets when they died on Snowden Road. They said their families were desperate for further information from the police about what happened.

Police said they were called to reports of a crash in Snowden Road at 6:03pm on Monday and the video from a house in the area appears to show a bike being followed by police at 5.59pm on a road about 900 metres away. South Wales Police says the collision had "already occurred" when officers arrived.

Police and crime commissioner Alun Michael had said before the CCTV footage emerged that no chase had occurred. He said there were "unfounded rumours of a police chase which was not the case and it just shows how, particularly with things going around on social media which may have very little connection with the truth, things can escalate very rapidly".

On Tuesday afternoon, South Wales Police Chief Superintendent Martyn Stone said the new footage would "form part of the investigation". He then left the press conference after making his statement without taking any questions as journalists asked why people were not told the bike had been followed by police and why the police and crime commissioner had "said something completely different" earlier in the day.

Police said they do not believe any other vehicles were involved in the crash which killed the two boys and that no police cars were on Snowden Road when it happened. Police said they did have a vehicle in nearby Grand Avenue, which responded to the report of a collision, attended the area and the officers performed CPR. The investigation will involve tracking data from the police vehicle.

On Wednesday, Mr Michael stood by his position . In an interview on BBC Radio Wales^[3] he said: "I was assured, and I am still assured, that the youths were not being chased by the police at the time of the road traffic accident."

Mr Michael said that the CCTV footage was not available to him or South Wales Police when he made his initial statement.

"What happened was footage emerged of something that happened a short time before the road traffic accident and that too needs to be investigated," he said.

"That was not available to the police or to me at the time when we responded to the first thing that happened, which was a road traffic accident."

Mr Michael claimed the CCTV footage was filmed five minutes before the crash occurred. "There was no police vehicle in the road where the crash happened. There was a police van in another street and the police were called quickly to the accident and conducted CPR," he added.

"That is being investigated as well and the latter is being referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct^[4] so anything that comes in needs to be investigated fully so we have the full picture."

Mr Michael also said "the fact remains that there was no police vehicle on Snowden Road when the accident happens." In discussing why the crash led to such riots in the area which saw cars set on fire and fireworks thrown at police he said that "to be too simplistic about what happened is not going to get us answers" and that it would be an "uphill battle" for the community to recover.

Cars were set on fire and officers had missiles - including fireworks and concrete blocks - thrown at them in the riots that happened after the crash on Monday night. Around 100 to 150 people were gathered on the streets.

Rioters were still on the streets nine hours later. Scenes being livestreamed on YouTube showed young people throwing fireworks and other missiles at a line of police officers with riot shields who were blocking one end of the street. It has been confirmed that 15 police officers needed medical attention following the disorder.

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References

1. ^{^} which sparked riots. (www.dailypost.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Man killed in crash which shut A55 near Britannia Bridge for nine hours (www.dailypost.co.uk)
3. ^{^} . In an interview on BBC Radio Wales (www.bbc.co.uk)
4. ^{^} referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (www.dailypost.co.uk)