Sheku Bayoh’s family accuse lawyers of ‘blaming him for his own death’ | Scotland

The sister of a man who died after being restrained by six police officers said their family was angry with lawyers representing those who arrested him for suggesting he was “the author of his own misfortune”.

During a public inquiry into the death in police custody of of Sheku Bayoh, those representing the officers said criticism of them was “wholly unwarranted”.

The family’s legal representative had earlier said the father-of-two was in a “mental health crisis” and should have been dealt with as a medical emergency but he was instead met with “immediate violence” from the police.

The 31-year-old died after he was restrained on the ground in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on 3 May 2015. He had been seen with a knife in the town on the day of his death but was not in possession of it when police went to arrest him.

On Tuesday, participants in the inquiry began giving oral submissions on the evidence heard so far.

Asked about the arguments put forward by the police representatives and whether the family’s anger was misplaced, Bayoh’s sister Kadi Johnson, said: “We’re very angry to hear that.

“When they met Sheku he had no knife on him.

“They are blaming Sheku for his own death, but where was their duty to care?

“They did not care for Sheku when they met him in a state where he was experiencing a mental breakdown. They did not help him there.”

Roddy Dunlop KC, representing the Scottish Police Federation, told the inquiry the officers had done their best in terrifying circumstances. He also dismissed claims that police could have waited before intervening, saying such a suggestion was ludicrous.

Dunlop said he did not dispute that Bayoh was a “kind, loving, friendly” man but said “that was not the man who was on Hayfield Road” at the time of the incident.

The trainee gas engineer was likely to have been experiencing behavioural disturbance as a result of taking drugs, he said, arguing the police had to act in such a situation.

He said the police had not killed Bayoh.

“He died because he created a situation in which he had to be restrained and where he was unable to survive lawful restraint,” he said.

Dunlop said the officers involved had been lambasted in the media as a result of the scrutiny they had been under for the last eight years.

The inquiry had earlier been told that when Bayoh died he had MDMA and alpha-PVP in his system.

Claire Mitchell KC, who represented Bayoh’s family, said racial stereotypes were used in relation to him soon after his death.

She said “police sources painted an image of a large black man with stereotypical characteristics of extraordinary strength and dangerousness” in the media.

Referring to previous evidence, she said Bayoh had been sprayed with incapacitants three times, struck with a baton and forced to the ground within 50 seconds of the first police car arriving at the scene on Hayfield Road.

“Sheku was brought to the ground in less than 45 seconds of the first police contact, never to get up again,” she said.

Mitchell said none of the officers involved had been seriously injured, and that the issue of race “flows as a river through this inquiry”, referring to the chief constable’s recent admission that Police Scotland is institutionally racist.

“In submissions we address where we say that some officers have not provided credible or reliable information to this inquiry, that they have lied,” she said.

Brian McConnachie KC, representing one of the officers, said there is “not a shred of evidence” that Bayoh’s race had anything to do with the incident.

The inquiry in Edinburgh, before Lord Bracadale, continues.