The Metropolitan Police commissioner today pledged to co-operate in full with a criminal investigation into the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests in London last week.
Video footage has emerged showing Mr Tomlinson being struck from behind by a police riot officer wielding a baton and violently shoved to the ground, apparently striking his head on the pavement. He died of a heart attack minutes later.
Several of the officers standing near Mr Tomlinson when he was pushed have come forward to speak to investigators from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), while others have been traced. However the man who shoved Mr Tomlinson has still not been identified.
One newspaper report suggested the officer involved belonged to the Met's Territorial Support Group. The dog handlers standing nearby are believed to be from the City of London Police.
Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said today: "My thoughts are with Mr Tomlinson's family at this time. The images that have now been released raise obvious concerns and it is absolutely right and proper that there is a full investigation into this matter, which the Met will fully support. "
Mr Tomlinson's death was being investigated by City of London Police under the auspices of the IPCC, but since the video footage of the incident emerged last night, politicians have called for the probe to be ramped up to a full criminal inquiry.
"There must be a full-scale criminal investigation. The officer concerned and the other officers shown in the video must immediately come forward," said David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat shadow justice secretary.
David Winnick, a Labour backbencher and a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said that the incident had ominous parallels with the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, who died at Stockwell Underground Station in 2005.
"There should be a statement by the Home Secretary on all the circumstances of the case." said Mr Winnick.
"One thing is quite clear – the inquiry taking place by City of London Police is hardly satisfactory, even if that inquiry is being managed or monitored by the IPCC.
"The possibility arises, of course, of a criminal prosecution in due course. It does seem that the original police statement was, to say the least, misleading in view of what has emerged, not least the photographs. They show Mr Tomlinson was, in fact, hit by a police officer. There will be anxiety about the thoroughness of the inquiry."
The video, filmed by a visiting New York banker on his mobile phone at about 7.20pm in Royal Exchange Passage near the Bank of England, shows Mr Tomlinson walking slowly in front of a group of officers, some with dogs and others in riot gear, with his hands in his pockets.
Without warning an officer pushes him violently from behind, sending him to the ground. In slowed-down footage, an officer wearing a helmet can be seen apparently hitting Mr Tomlinson on the leg from behind with a baton.
Police then stand watching as passers-by go to help Mr Tomlinson while he sits on the floor, apparently remonstrating with the officers. A few seconds later he is seen walking away. He collapsed moments later in nearby Cornhill. A post-mortem examination last week found that he died from a heart attack.
An official police statement on the night of the protests made no mention of this contact between Mr Tomlinson and police. It said simply that police officers were called to Mr Tomlinson's aid in Cornhill, after his collapse, but were pelted with bottles by protesters, and had to move him to a place of safety.
"The officers gave him an initial check and cleared his airway before moving him back behind the cordon line to a clear area outside the Royal Exchange Building where they gave him CPR. The officers took the decision to move him as during this time a number of missiles - believed to be bottles - were being thrown at them," said the statement.
Peter Apps and Elias Stokes, both students, have told how they and a friend with first aid experience went to Mr Tomlinson's aid when he collapsed, calling 999 and following instructions to place him on his back. They alerted the police but were roughly forced away by a police charge, they said. They claim that they tried to persuade a police officer to speak to the 999 controller, but he would not.
Mr Apps and Mr Stokes said that no more than two missiles were thrown, neither landing near the police, and that the protesters who threw them - who could not see what was going on - stopped immediately when they were told there was a seriously ill man on the ground.
Since the matter was referred to the IPCC on the night Mr Tomlinson died, the police watchdog has been working in conjunction with City of London police officers to investigate his death.
However, after seeing the video showing Mr Tomlinson being pushed to the ground, the IPCC is currently meeting to decide whether it needs to make the investigation completely independent, and just use their own investigators, many of whom are former police or customs officers. An announcement is due later today. A source involved in the inquiry told The Times: "Your stomach does take a bit of a turn when you watch what happened."
Mr Tomlinson’s son, Paul King, 26, said his father left work selling the Evening Standard at Monument Station at about 7pm. He was trying to make his way home to Smithfield but police at a number of barricades were not allowing people through.
He said the video proved that police did have contact with his father. But he told The Guardian: "Whether that was a cause to his death we are not to know."
He added: "We want answers: why? Ian clearly had his arms in his pockets and back towards the police. There is no need for them to step in towards him... Now we’ve seen it, we want answers."
The New York banker who filmed the incident said: "The primary reason for me coming forward is because it was clear the family were not getting any answers."
Anna Branthwaite, a photographer, has already told City of London Police that she saw Mr Tomlinson being pushed and hit with a police baton. She said: "I saw a riot police officer rushing towards him from behind and grabbing hold of him from behind and charging with him. He [the officer] grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and used his own body to propel him forward."
A statement by another witness, who did not wish to be named, says that Mr Tomlinson was pushed from behind and fell forward on his head.
Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said today that anyone on the streets during a protest could expect trouble. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "On a day like that, where there are some protesters who are quite clearly hell-bent on causing as much trouble as they can, there is inevitably going to be some physical confrontation. On that day, it was mercifully... a lot smaller than expected."
Asked whether he thought the assault on Mr Tomlinson was unprovoked, he said: "Sometimes it isn’t clear, as a police officer, who is a protester and who is not.
"I know it’s a generalisation but anybody in that part of the town at that time, the assumption would be that they are part of the protest. I accept that’s perhaps not a clever assumption but it’s a natural one."
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said that the IPCC should complete its inquiry as quickly as possible “If it identifies the need for a criminal investigation then that also needs to be pursued,” said Ms Smith.
Source:the times
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