POLICE may have “escalated” the situation that led to the death of Sheku Bayoh, a BBC documentary suggests.
The Disclosure programme, shown last night, included previously unseen footage of the moments before the 31-year-old’s death in hospital following police restraint in 2015.
The incident happened close to his Kirkcaldy home and his family called for a full public enquiry after it emerged in October that no officers would be prosecuted.
Documents obtained by the programme show unnamed officers claimed Bayoh, a father of two, had “stomped” on a woman.
However, footage of the scene does not show this.
Police restraint expert Eric Baskind, of Liverpool John Moore University, told the BBC the evidence from officers suggests they approached the scene “with the intention of using force”.
He said: “He’s not running away, he’s not, at that moment in time, creating a danger to anyone. They get there, they screech to a halt, they get out of the cars with irritant sprays and batons. That to me doesn’t seem measured. That is not best practice. And all of those actions were very escalatory.”
Bayoh, originally from Sierra Leone, suffered 23 separate injuries including a cracked rib, head wounds consistent with baton strikes and burst blood vessels in the eyes, which can be a sign of suffocation.
Deborah Coles of the charity Inquest said race may have played a role in his death.
Police Scotland said it could not comment while the case remains open.
The Scottish Police Federation, which represents some officers involved, said it would be inappropriate to comment until all legal processes are complete, but suggested the BBC account included “fundamental inaccuracies”.
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