A former Scottish police officer who was injured in the incident that led to Sheku Bayoh’s death has said she isn’t ‘racist’ and that ‘part of me died’ that day.
Sheku Bayoh, a father-of-two from Fife, died after he was restrained by police officers in the town of Kirkcaldy in May 2015.
Mr Bayoh, who had taken the drugs MDMA and Flakka, was found to have suffered 23 separate injuries.
PC Nicole Short, who is around 5ft, was one of the first responders to 999 calls from the public, who reported seeing 31-year-old Bayoh walking the streets with a knife.
Speaking for the first time to the media, Ms Short told Sky News she has been forced to retire due to her ill-health.
‘I thought he was going to kill me’
The 39-year-old has said she believed she was going to be killed by Sheku Bayoh after being “stamped on”.
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Ms Short told Sky News: “He kept coming at me with his fists up like a boxer.
“I thought he was going to kill me. He was on a mission. I thought I was done. The ground is the most dangerous place to be.”
Mr Bayoh was later found not to have a knife in his possession at the time of his death. A weapon was found discarded nearby.
Ms Short told Sky News she believed Bayoh may have concealed a weapon on his body and was capable of “stabbing somebody, murdering somebody”.
Two doctors, who examined Ms Short in the hours after the incident, previously told a public inquiry there were no signs of serious injury on the officer.
Police accounts of Ms Short being stamped on by Mr Bayoh are disputed by a member of the public who watched the incident from his house.
He alleges the stamping did not happen.
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A public inquiry examining the circumstances surrounding the incident, including whether race played a role in the police response and subsequent investigation, has descended into chaos.
The Chair, Lord Bracadale, stood down after being accused of apparent bias over private meetings he held with the Bayoh family.
The inquiry, which has so far cost more than £50m, is now searching for a new chairperson.
‘I am not a racist’
Nicole Short believes she has been painted to be a racist. “It’s been horrible for myself and my family.
“He was a man with a knife – a dangerous weapon. Members of the public had phoned us because they were scared.”
Asked if she was racist, Ms Short said “no way” and denies she would have acted differently if the confrontation had been with a white suspect.
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She told Sky News: “Race was mentioned early on. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that on top of everything else that we were being accused of being racist, murdering police officers. Trying to live your daily life with that hanging over you.
“We were all white police officers. We were sent to a call and the man who we were sent to was black. That is as far as it goes. I understand the tragic death of Mr Bayoh and we all feel that, but we are not racist, murdering police officers.”
Scotland’s prosecution service, the Crown Office, previously took the decision not to prosecute any of the officers involved in the incident after a “thorough review” of all the available evidence.
Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing the family of Sheku Bayoh, said in response to Ms Short’s comments: “The words of Nicole Short today are grotesque, and… a further attempt to smear, criminalise and negate Sheku’s right to life.
“There is only one person that died that day and it was a 31-year-old unarmed black man, a father of two boys, suffering mental health crisis due to drugs he took.
“He died as a result of restraint by up to six officers – with half a tonne weight on top of him – those are the facts.”
