Force refers itself to watchdog as CCTV shows cop van following e …
South Wales Police has referred itself to the policing watchdog as CCTV footage showed one of their vans following two people on an electric bike before a fatal crash.
South Wales Police have received CCTV footage that shows a police vehicle following a bike ahead of a serious collision that killed two teenagers in Cardiff and sparked a riot. Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, were killed in the Ely area of Cardiff on Monday while riding an electric bike.
The CCTV footage is understood to be around half a mile from the site of the crash. The BBC said the video was time-stamped to 5.59pm - while the crash happened at 6pm.
Police van seen following two people on an e-bike shortly before fatal crash
Chief Superintendent Martyn Stone told a press conference in Cardiff on Tuesday: "We have received footage that shows a police vehicle following a bike at just prior to 6pm. This footage is being recovered as part of the investigation and will assist us in piecing together the circumstances leading up to the collision. The families are being kept up to date.
"We can confirm the following investigations have been carried out so far and when the collision occurred there were no police vehicles on Snowden Road."
It follows the footage emerging online after the force said the crash happened before officers attended the scene.
Alun Michael, South Wales police and crime commissioner, told BBC[2] Radio 4's Today programme earlier on Tuesday that police had not chased the pair. He said: "It would appear that there were rumours, and those rumours became rife, of a police chase, which wasn't the case."
Tensions reached breaking point after officers were called to the scene in Snowden Road shortly after 6pm on Monday. Some residents in the district claimed the two boys, who were named locally, were being pursued by South Wales Police - an allegation that was earlier denied by the force.
Police said the collision had already occurred when officers arrived, and they remained on the scene to manage "large-scale disorder" until the early hours of Tuesday morning.
At around midnight Belinda Sullivan, Kyrees's mother, pleaded on Facebook[3] with the rioters to stop because her son's body remained at the scene of the collision.
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.
Tributes were paid to the two teenagers, with one local resident, Bridy Bool, calling Harvey a "sociable" boy with "loads of friends" who loved motorbikes and football.
She added that he was best friends with Kyrees, who was "into the same things".
Specially trained public order officers were deployed, including officers from neighbouring police forces, as several vehicles were set alight, property was damaged and officers were injured.
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.
Shortly before midnight a car was set on fire and burned fiercely, while a second vehicle was overturned and also torched.
Mr Stone confirmed while speaking to the press that 15 police officers needed medical attention following the disorder. The South Wales force said arrests have been made but did not say how many.
An IOPC spokesperson said: "We have been contacted this afternoon by South Wales Police to make a referral regarding the circumstances leading up to the fatal collision in Ely yesterday (Monday). We will be sending investigators to a police post incident procedure to begin gathering information and to assess whether the IOPC will carry out an independent investigation.”
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