Two teenagers who died in an electric bike crash in Cardiff, sparking riots, were not being chased by police when they crashed, a police boss has said.
Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, died in the crash on Snowden Road, Ely, shortly after 18:00 BST on Monday.
Alun Michael, South Wales’ police and crime commissioner, previously denied that any police chase had occurred.
CCTV footage shows a police van following a bike 900m (about 3,000ft) from the crash site minutes earlier.
The deaths sparked a riot in Ely which saw cars set alight, fireworks thrown at police and 15 officers injured.
“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,” Mr Michael told Radio Wales Breakfast on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Mr Michael said: “It would appear that there were rumours, and those rumours became rife, of a police chase – which wasn’t the case.”
Later on Tuesday South Wales Police said it was “studying CCTV and tracking data from the police vehicle”, adding that there were “no police vehicles on Snowden Road” at the time of the crash.
The CCTV footage, which has been analysed by BBC Verify, is time-stamped to 17:59 BST on Monday on Frank Road.
Mr Michael has denied being misinformed when he previously claimed that no police chase had occurred.
“What happened was footage emerged of something that happened a short time before the road traffic accident, and that too needs to be investigated,” he said.
“That was not available to the police or to me at the time when we responded to the first thing that happened, which was a road traffic accident.”
Mr Michael claimed the CCTV footage was filmed five minutes before the crash occurred.
“There was no police vehicle in the road where the crash happened. There was a police van in another street and the police were called quickly to the accident and conducted CPR,” he added.
“That is being investigated as well and the latter is being referred to the independent office for police conduct so anything that comes in needs to be investigated fully so we have the full picture.”
Following the fatal crash, First Minister Mark Drakeford – whose Cardiff West constituency includes Ely – said he was “very concerned” by the “upsetting reports”.
Labour MP Kevin Brennan, who represents the Cardiff West constituency in the UK parliament, said on Tuesday it was “highly unfortunate” that the information initially provided by the police appears not to have been “entirely correct”.
“It’s important, if we’re going to have trust and confidence between the community [and] the local police force… there has to be openness and clarity,” added Mr Brennan.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said what had happened was “appalling and completely unacceptable”.
Police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), has said it is sending investigators to assess “whether the IOPC will carry out an independent investigation”.
Source – BBC News
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