The father of a man shot dead by police on the M62 motorway accused senior officers of failing to offer condolences to his family in person as dozens of mourners held a roadside vigil at the scene of the shooting.
Mohammed Yaqub, 59, said he had not been contacted by anyone from West Yorkshire police in the seven days since his son, Yassar Yaqub, was shot by an officer in Huddersfield.
A gun was later found in the passenger footwell of the white Audi that the 28-year-old was travelling in when armed police fired three gunshots through his windscreen last Monday.
Speaking as about 60 friends and relatives gathered at the M62 slip road to mark a week since his son was shot, Yaqub said: “Not a single police officer has come to my house or rang me since that day.”
West Yorkshire police issued a statement from its chief constable, Dee Collins, on Friday evening extending “sincere sympathies” to Yaqub’s family for what it described as a “tragic incident”.
But Yaqub said he believed the statement was released in response to unrest over the shooting in communities across Bradford and Huddersfield. “They put out a statement but nothing personally to me,” he told the Guardian. “They just put that out to keep the public quiet. No person whatsoever has been to my house even to say this is what’s happened.
“Even in a third-world country you would expect some sympathy. They put that public statement out for their own benefit, not for my family, because they haven’t spoken to us about it.”
Yaqub said he had to wait five hours before police officially confirmed his son’s death despite him asking officers at the scene for information soon after the shooting.
To chants of “no justice, no humanity, no peace” and “no more killing,” friends and relatives of Yaqub – including his partner and their two children – held banners accusing the police of unlawful killing and placed flowers on the grass verge near where he was shot.
One banner said: “He was a civilian and deserved to be treated within the means of the law”. Another read: “Rest in peace daddy #justiceforyassar” and many wore clothes emblazoned with: “No chance to surrender. No warning shots. Unlawful killing #justiceforyassar.”
About 50 supporters of Yassar Yaqub holding vigil at M62 roadside where he was fatally shot by police a week ago pic.twitter.com/1UQeDaboVF
— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) January 9, 2017
At the vigil, Yaqub’s brother-in-law, Isaa Akbar, described the 28-year-old as a “big hearted” person and not the local drugs kingpin as he had been portrayed.
He repeated the family’s demand for answers: “The whole shooting seems to have taken place in a matter of seconds. The [police] car stormed in front of them, let three shots off into the passenger side of the car – the police didn’t get out of the car. We just wanted answers for what happened on that day.”
Akbar, 26, added: “We all fear the police now. The people who are supposed to be protecting us.”
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the death. A West Yorkshire police spokeswoman said the IPCC was handling the role of family liaison.
West Yorkshire police has said the “pre-planned” operation was launched following a tip-off about a suspected illegal firearm.
Moshin Amin, who was arrested during the operation, appeared in court on Friday charged with possessing a converted self-loading pistol, a silencer and 11 rounds of ammunition without a firearms certificate.
