Sheku Bayo was “killed” by police officers, his best friend told the investigation into the death of the 31-year-old in custody, as he gave a stopping and emotional testimony on the first day of a new gathering of evidence.
Zahid Said, who knew the father of two children from the age of 17, struggled to answer questions from Angela Graham, a senior investigative adviser, about Bayo’s behavior at a party the night before he died.
Asked for a previous written statement in which he said that they both took drugs at the party, Saeed did not seem to want to answer questions about his friend’s behavior. Witnesses later said Friday that Bayo had fought with another man near his home in Kirkaldi, Fife, and was carrying an 8-inch kitchen knife.
Bayo died after police responded to reports of an agitated black man carrying a knife on May 3, 2015. He was beaten with batons, CS spray and pepper spray, and then detained on the sidewalk with wrist and leg ties. A toxicology report confirms that Bayo took some drugs that night, but no weapon with a blade was found.
Said said at the hearing that he had suffered two injuries, explaining: “First one was my son who was killed, then my friend who was killed in police custody.” Saeed’s three-year-old son, Michael Kular, was killed by his mother in 2014.
He continued: “The questions you have to ask are the police, not me, not me.
He repeated many times that he wanted to finish his testimony in one day and explain how he was treated by police officers after Bayo’s death, “how I was kept in police custody for 11 hours without offering me any liquids – how I was dehumanized.”
Graham assured him that this experience was “part of this investigation”, but that for the purposes of Friday’s hearing, the focus was on the events that led to the police call.
As Saeed is increasingly reluctant to answer key questions about the timeline that led to his friend’s death, Graham told him: help the President to understand some of what you said in your statement … to tell the whole truth about everything that happened. ”
Saeed replied: “The truth is that he was killed in police custody, what else can be said?”
Eventually, Lord Brackdale, who presided over the investigation, postponed his testimony to a later date after Graham said he would consider “an alternative environment or other arrangements that would allow Saeed to continue more effectively with this review.”
Later on Friday, neighbor Neil Morgan described meeting Bayo, whom he described as “a nice, friendly, really nice person, never without problems.”
Morgan said he was warned of a riot in a nearby garden on May 3 at about 7:30 a.m. and went outside to investigate, after which he met Bayo, who was “not himself” and carrying a knife.
“I told him, ‘You can’t go around with this knife, you’re done,'” Morgan said. Then he turned to me and said, “It’s not even sharp,” and somehow shoved it into my stomach.
When Graham asked about his reaction, Morgan said, “Actually, nothing. I certainly didn’t feel threatened by him. “
Another neighbor, Naomi Rhodes, who also testified, said she was awakened that morning by shouting in front of her bedroom window and saw two men, one of them Bayo, fighting in the street. She said Bayo was a “friendly” neighbor and that such behavior was uncommon.
The investigation continues.
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