Footage of police restraint in London shop was slowed down and magnified for jury

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The police officer who restrained Rashan Charles before his death told an inquest he felt something was “not quite right” at the time of the incident.

Charles, a 20-year-old black man, died on 22 July in 2017 following restraint by Metropolitan police officers in Hackney, east London.

Earlier on Monday, a family member broke down in tears and left the opening day of the inquest at St Pancras coroners court after seeing CCTV footage of the arrest.

The coroner, Mary Hassell, described the footage as distressing but said “it gives a very good view of what was going on”.

Police officers granted anonymity at Rashan Charles inquest Read more

In the video, the officer, who cannot be identified and is referred to as BX 47, can be heard saying repeatedly: “Spit it out, spit it out”, referring to something he believed Charles had swallowed. Charles is seen panting and resisting but then becomes motionless.



The officer said he had seen Charles get out of a car and believed him to be acting suspiciously. He told the court he suspected that he may have been trying to evade police because he was carrying drugs or a weapon and so he chased Charles on foot into the shop where he restrained him next to a drinks fridge.

He told the court that he and his fellow officers were on the lookout for gang violence, which was on the rise at the time as were stabbings and acid attacks.

He suspected that Charles had put something in his mouth that he thought might be drugs. Later analysis found the package to be a mixture of caffeine and Paracetamol. He said he put Charles into a “seatbelt hold” to restrain him.

“I used my hands as a pressure point where his lower jaw meets his upper jaw, which would normally make a person open their mouth. On this occasion it didn’t seem to have any effect,” he said.

The officer added that he remembered telling Charles to “breathe”, which Hassell questioned him about.

“Most of us don’t need to be told to breathe,” the coroner said.

The police officer said he turned Charles over to prevent positional asphyxia and employed an “abdominal thrust” to try to get him to “spill out whatever was in his mouth”.

“He wasn’t showing any visual signs of choking, coughing or struggling to breathe,” he said.

Hassell asked why the officer did not call an ambulance as soon as he became concerned about Charles. “Purely because of everything going on,” he said. “I was trying to concentrate on everything in front of me.”

Charles, who has been described as caring and generous by his family, was initially shown to struggle when he was restrained.

Two police officers involved in the incident and two other witnesses, known as witness one and witness two, have been granted anonymity for the proceedings.



The press and public were barred from seeing the jury, coroner and witnesses after officers were granted anonymity, despite Hassell rejecting claims there was a “direct threat to officers’ lives”.



Hassell explained to the jury she had decided to place a large black curtain, held up by a metal rail extending from wall to wall of the small courtroom “after some thought”.



She added the press and public, including people who knew Charles who were not among the family members registered as interested persons, would be able to hear the proceedings. “The acoustics in this court are good – they will be able to hear everything,” she said.

Charles’s death came just weeks after that of 25-year-old Edson Da Costa, who died following restraint by police officers in Newham, east London. Da Costa and Charles were among five young black men to have died in circumstances involving police restraint in England in 2017.

There was initially speculation that Charles had swallowed a controlled substance during the incident but this was later found to be a mix of caffeine and paracetamol.

The inquest is due to last for three weeks.