Police boss says teenagers killed in Cardiff crash were not being chased by police at the time

Two teenagers who were killed in a crash while riding an electric bike in Cardiff on Monday night were not being chased by police at the time of the collision, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales has suggested.

Appearing on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme for a second day in a row, Alun Michael said: “Information emerged after we had done the interview (on Tuesday) which has to be investigated, and the question has to be asked of whether there is a connection between earlier events and the road traffic accident itself.

“We have to look at the facts of what actually happened on Monday. I am assured and I am still assured youths were not being chased by the police at the time of the road traffic accident.

“The road traffic accident is being carefully investigated but there wasn’t a police vehicle in the road where and when the actual accident happened.

“The impression that was given was that of youngsters being chased by the police and an accident happened, an immediate one to the other. That I am still assured is not what happened but information emerged of the vehicle and the youngsters in the same street, a different street, shortly before the event, that of course then comes into something that should be investigated.”

Investigated

When broadcaster Martha Kearney suggested that this leaves open the possibility of a police chase, he replied: “It leaves open the possibility. I was assured there was not … police chasing the individuals at the time the accident happened. That there may have been something earlier is of course something that should be fully investigated.”

South Wales Police confirmed on Tuesday evening that it had have received CCTV footage that shows a police vehicle following a bike ahead of the serious collision that killed the two teenagers 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.

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 South Wales force said the video clip – taken from a nearby house’s CCTV cameras – would form part of its investigation but insisted there were no police vehicles on Snowden Road at the time of the crash.

The force has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct to “ensure the matter receives independent scrutiny”.

Arrests

In the crash’s aftermath, 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 hurt.

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.

Police said arrests were made after the disorder, which left 15 officers requiring medical attention – 11 of which were treated in hospital.

At about midnight, Belinda Sullivan, Kyrees’s mother, pleaded on Facebook with the rioters to stop because her son’s body remained at the scene of the crash.

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 teenagers, with one local resident, Bridy Bool, calling Harvey a “sociable” boy with “loads of friends” and who loved motorbikes and football.

She said he was best friends with Kyrees, who was “into the same things”.