A woman who witnessed a teenage boy drown in a river after he was chased by police has told an inquest she could not understand why none of the officers got into the water to try to save him.
Ailish Tynan, who was cycling along a towpath by the river Lea in east London on 29 July last year, said there “didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency” in efforts to get Jack Susianta out of the water, despite the presence of lots of police officers and a police helicopter.
“At that time everybody was standing round saying: ‘Why is nobody going in? Why is nobody going in?’” the opera singer told St Pancras coroner’s court in north London.
Her husband, Keith McNicoll, a musician in an orchestra, told the inquest he too had been surprised by the apparent lack of urgency at the scene, saying Jack had disappeared beneath the water three times before he vanished for the last time.
“It was so quiet. That was the thing that struck me the most,” he said, adding: “What struck me was the calmness of the whole situation.”
Both said several minutes elapsed between the teenager disappearing beneath the water and the first time police got into the water. McNicoll said he remembered seeing on his watch that eight or nine minutes passed, although he told the inquest this could in retrospect have been wrong.
In contrast, a man rowing a single scull boat on the river who tried in vain to save Jack said police were acting with great urgency, and would have placed themselves at great risk if they had tried to swim out to the boy.
“It would almost certainly have caused another casualty, unless they were very powerful swimmers or knew absolutely what they were doing,” said Sean O’Shea, a teacher.
The inquest has heard that the A-level student had suffered a drug-induced psychosis earlier that week after taking MDMA at a music festival and was taken to a hospital by police, but released after a psychiatrist said his symptoms had alleviated.
However, two days later he ran away in panic from the family home in Hackney, east London, and his parents called the police. As officers located and pursued Jack he ran into the river.
O’Shea said he saw Jack leap into the water and immediately submerge, saying he thought the sudden immersion in cold water had shocked him: “I think he was completely disorientated at that point. I think he had taken in water.”
O’Shea said he did see action from police on the bank, who were throwing a lifebuoy towards the teenager. “A big policeman shouted over and over, ‘Jack, grab the ring, Jack, grab the ring,’” he said.
Tynan said she and McNicoll arrived when Jack was already in the water, repeatedly sinking and resurfacing.
She recalled talking to a man at the scene: “I said: ‘Why is nobody getting in?’ He said: ‘I don’t know, it’s only about 5ft deep.’”
She told the inquest: “Everybody seemed very hesitant. I just thought it must be a sort of dangerous individual, that’s why nobody is getting in.”
Tynan said that, aside from a female officer yelling at Jack to grab the buoy, “there didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency”. She added: “It was like nobody knew what to do.”
Tynan said there was a wait of between five and 10 minutes before the first police officer waded into the water. “There is absolutely no way he would have been alive by the time somebody got into the water,” she said.
McNicoll said the officer eventually waded to near where Jack had vanished, and seemed to look around before returning to the shore. “I was very surprised that he did not submerge himself,” he said.
But in his evidence, O’Shea said one officer had yelled at him to assist the teenager, “with a note of desperation and pleading in his voice”. O’Shea said he had previously stayed back as his very narrow craft was very unstable and a recent operation for a torn shoulder meant he feared being dragged under if he dived in to reach the youth.
But O’Shea did then row towards Jack, arriving just as the teenager submerged for the last time. “I got to him just after he had gone under water for the last time,” he said. “I could see him under the water, about 50cm out of my reach.”
O’Shea said the policeman who got into the water tried desperately to find Jack, and that he eventually encouraged the officer to get out, fearing he was in the early stages of hypothermia. “I thought he was very brave,” he said. “I think he did the very best he could.”
The inquest on Monday included harrowing video footage of Jack’s last moments, shot from the police helicopter.
The images show him in close-up, treading water in the river Lea. He lifts his arms above his head and sinks, only to resurface.
Soon afterwards he lifts his arms and sinks again for a final time. In police radio traffic recorded on the video, an officer or officers by the river can be heard asking three times whether they can go into the water to try to help Jack after he submerges.
