Devastated mum blasts ‘police killed my son’ as Kyrees Sullivan, 16, dies with friend after ‘being followed by cops’
THE devastated mum of Kyrees Sullivan has blasted police for “killing my son” as he dies with his best friend after allegedly being followed by cops.
Kyrees, 16, and pal Harvey Evans, 15, were travelling on a £4,000 Sur-Ron e-bike on Monday night in Ely, Cardiff, when they got into a fatal smash around 6pm.
Rumours soon spread that officers were to blame as CCTV footage emerged of the pair being “chased” by a cop van just seconds before.
With their deaths sparking riots on the Welsh residential street, masked thugs lobbed flaming missiles, fireworks and paving slabs at police – injuring 15.
Kyrees’ mum Belinda Sullivan, 42, has since blamed South Wales Police for her son’s death.
A vigil was held at the scene on Wednesday night for the teens, 48 hours after the tragedy.
Blasting the force, Belinda told the Daily Telegraph: “The police killed my son. I’ve got nothing else to say.”
Police chiefs previously denied their officers were involved in the tragedy until after the collision – insisting it had “already occurred when officers arrived”.
However, cops admitted on Tuesday they did follow the boys – resulting in the Independent Office for Police Conduct launching a probe into the deaths.
Footage from a RingDoorbell cam shows two young lads racing down the road – shortly followed by a police van which did not have it’s blue lights nor sirens illuminated.
The footage was confirmed to have been taken at 52 seconds past 6pm.
Then, just 85 seconds later at 18:02.17, the collision occurred.
Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Bacon said there were no blue lights or sirens activated in the CCTV footage.
She said: “At 5.49pm CCTV shows the bike travelling towards the police vehicle in Frank Road. The bike then turns around.
“At 6pm the bike is followed by the police vehicle, which you have already seen on CCTV images.
“Blue lights or sirens were not illuminated.”
Dept Chief Const Bacon said the van travelled over New Ely Church roundabout before going down Archer, Stanway and Howell Road.
It then turned onto Grand Avenue at 6.02.31pm.
She added: “Between 6.02.17pm and 6.02.41pm is the approximate time of the road traffic collision in Snowden Road.
“At the time of the collision, the police van is in Grand Avenue, half a mile away from Snowden Road.
“[At 6.06.59pm] the police vehicle is on Cowbridge Road West when it receives information about a road traffic collision, illuminates blue lights and makes its way to the collision scene.”
She insisted “there was no police vehicle in Snowden Road at the time of the collision”.
A relative of Harvey last night told The Times: “If they see someone on a Sur-Ron, they think they are a drug dealer.
“The police told Harvey’s family that there were no police vehicles in the area, they didn’t get chased and there was no sighting of them.
“But there it is, it’s all in the videos.”
Kyrees’ uncle added his nephew would still be alive if they hadn’t been “chased”.
He told The Times: “My nephew and his best mate are dead because they chased him on a little electric motorbike.”
One witness, whose CCTV captured the moment, said they were forced to jump out of the way of the bike and van as they travelled “at speed”.
They said: “You could see the boys were panicking and trying to get away from them.”
It comes after the duo drove through an area, which had bollards, to try and escape police, a family member claimed.
Alun Michael, crime commissioner for South Wales, had previously rubbished the claims of a pursuit on Tuesday morning.
And on Wednesday he told BBC Radio 4 Today he is “still assured youths were not being chased”.
Tributes were paid by the families of Kyrees and Harvey yesterday.
Harvey’s mum today said the “much-loved” teen had a big heart while Kyrees’ relatives said he “was a loving, caring handsome young man”.