A public inquiry is to be held into the death of a man in custody after prosecutors decided not to charge any police officers involved.
The Scottish government’s justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, announced there would be an independent investigation into Sheku Bayoh’s death in Kirkcaldy four years ago after the 31-year-old was restrained by nine police officers using batons, CS spray and pepper spray.
Yousaf told MSPs the inquiry’s remit was yet to be finalised but it would examine the hours leading up to and immediately following the incident, the actions of the officers involved and the force’s handling of the incident. It would also investigate whether Bayoh’s race played a part in the police response, he said.
The lord advocate, James Wolffe QC, told Bayoh’s family on Monday he would not prosecute either Police Scotland or any of the officers involved in Bayoh’s arrest. It is thought Wolffe believes there is insufficient evidence to justify criminal proceedings. Instead, he will oversee the new inquiry.
Yousaf said Wolffe’s investigation was necessary because a fatal accident inquiry (FAI), a sheriff-led investigation into the circumstances of a death, did not have the scope and remit to deal with the questions surrounding Bayoh’s death and the official response.
“In this case, the lord advocate has identified questions, raising issues of public interest and importance about the early stages of the post-incident management of the investigation that an FAI simply could not examine,” Yousaf said.
“That being the case, it is imperative that the circumstances leading up to Mr Bayoh’s death and the events that followed, including whether race played a part, are examined in full and in public.”
Hamza told MSPs on Tuesday that Bayoh, originally from Sierra Leone, was a similar age to him, was also a Muslim and also from an ethnic minority. “At the heart of this is a man who lost his life and a family who are devastated by that,” he said. The inquiry will, for the first time in Scotland, have several panel members, at least one of whom is expected to be from an ethnic minority.
Bayoh died after the police responded to reports that a “large black man” had been seen waving a knife, shouting at cars and behaving erratically early one Sunday morning in May 2015. Soon afterwards, Bayoh, who was unarmed at the time, was confronted by police on the street and very quickly restrained.
Aamer Anwar, the lawyer for the Bayoh family, has repeatedly accused the police of using unjustified force and of then obstructing an investigation by the police investigations and review commissioner (PIRC), Scotland’s independent investigations body.
Anwar has alleged the police officers involved were gathered in one room in Kirkcaldy police station after Bayoh died and refused to be debriefed about the incident or interviewed by PIRC investigators for several weeks following the incident.
Anwar said the medical evidence showed Bayoh died of positional asphyxia, due to the restraint techniques and force used during his arrest.
The Scottish Police Federation, which represents the officers involved, said Bayoh was under the influence of the drug MDMA and another synthetic stimulant. It has alleged that many of the bruises found on Bayoh’s body during the postmortem were from a fight Bayoh had been involved in earlier that morning.
