‘Possible’ teens killed in Ely crash were chased, police say – Cardiff riot live

Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and 15-year-old Harvey Evans were killed in a collision while riding an electric bike in Ely on Monday evening, sparking a night of violence with cars torched and clashes with riot police.

PCC Alun Michael suggested on Tuesday morning that rumours of a police chase prior to the crash had become “rife” shortly before locals clashed with officers – 15 of whom were injured, according to the force – but said this version of events “wasn’t the case”.

The mother of one of the teenagers whose deaths in a road accident sparked a riot begged the yobs to stop their violence – as her son’s body lay in the street where he died.

Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and 15-year-old Harvey Evans were killed in the Ely area of Cardiff while riding an electric bike.

Tensions reached breaking point after officers were called to the scene in Snowden Road shortly after 6pm on Monday.

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.”

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.”

The relatives of the young victims who died in a fatal car crash on Monday have condemned the police as they claim officers pursued the boys in a car chase.

“My nephew and his best mate are dead because they chased him on a little electric motorbike,” the uncle of killed 16-year-old Kyrees told The Times.

Meanwhile, Harvey’s godmother, Bridy Bool, said the pair had done nothing to trigger a police chase, describing them as “bare-faced innocent children”.

The police commissioner has insisted that two teenagers killed in a fatal car crash in Ely were not being chased by the police.

South Wales Police confirmed on Tuesday that it has received CCTV footage that shows a police van following a bike ahead of a fatal collision that killed two teenagers in Cardiff and sparked a riot.

However, in comments to Radio Wales Breakfast this morning, the South Wales’ police and crime commissionerAlun Michael said: “I was assured, and I am still assured, that the youths were not being chased by the police at the time of the road traffic accident.”

The police watchdog has announced it will send investigators to assess whether it will carry out an independent probe into a crash in Cardiff which killed two teenagers and sparked a riot.

Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, were killed in the Ely area on Monday while riding an electric bike.

Chief Superintendent of South Wales Police Martyn Stone told a press conference in Cardiff on Tuesday that a “mandatory referral” had been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) following the disorder to “ensure the matter receives independent scrutiny”.

The mother of one of the teenagers whose deaths in a road accident sparked a riot begged for a stop to the violence – as her son’s body lay in the street where he died.

Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and 15-year-old Harvey Evans were killed in the Ely area of Cardiff while riding an electric bike.

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

Writing on Facebook, she said: “My son is still laying on the floor due to this riot.

“I’m sat at home heart broken.

“There are two families broken right now I just want to see my son and I can’t because of this riot that has happened.

“Please I beg you all to stop and let my son be moved to hospital so I can see him we need to see our sons.”

CCTV footage shows a police van following an electric bike minutes before a fatal crash which sparked a night of riots in Cardiff, Wales.

The footage, obtained by Wales News, shows the bike being followed by the vehicle on Frank Road, Ely, less than a mile from the collision site.

A disabled woman has said she is now “trapped” after rioters torched her car during violent clashes in Cardiff overnight.

Trouble started on Monday evening after a serious crash on Snowdon Road in the Ely area in which two teenagers died.

Clashes continued into the early hours of Tuesday morning, with people throwing fireworks and other missiles at riot police.

South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael declined to comment on footage in which a police van can be seen following two people on either a moped or electric bike, apparently minutes before the crash.

He said to the BBC on Tuesday: “You should examine the carefully-worded statement from the chief superintendent.”

Earlier Mr Michael had denied a police chase.

“It would appear that there were rumours, and those rumours became rife, of a police chase, which wasn’t the case and I think it illustrates the speed with which rumours can run around with the activity that goes on social media nowadays, and that events can get out of hand,” he said on BBC Radio 4.