Episode one: Down on the ground
Early on Sunday, 3 May 2015 Police Scotland’s control room starts to receive calls about a black man with a knife.
Police arrive at the scene and within minutes Sheku Bayoh is down on the ground. After being restrained by up to six officers, he stops breathing.
Many details of what happened that morning are in dispute. His devastated family are still searching for answers.
They want to know what role race played in Sheku’s death. They claim he is Scotland’s George Floyd. Police refute this.
Now a public inquiry – launched in May last year – is trying to find out what really happened.
Welcome to Sheku Bayoh: The Inquiry, a new podcast from The Ferret, which aims to summarise the evidence heard by the inquiry team.
In the early hours of that morning there was going to be a big boxing match – Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Manny Pacquiao, in Las Vegas. It was billed as the Fight of the Century. Sheku and Zahid planned to go to their friend Martyn’s house to watch it after he finished work, about 3am…But the night ended in tragedy.
In this first of three episodes – focused on the inquiry’s first hearing – we look at the evidence about what exactly happened in the hours and minutes leading up to Sheku Bayoh’s death.
And we examine in detail the 75 seconds it took between police arriving at Hayfield Road in Kirkcaldy and restraining him on the ground.
Show notes
This podcast was written and produced by Karin Goodwin
Research by Tomiwa Folorunso
Recording, editing & sound design by Halina Rifai
Original music by Alan Bryden
Listen to all the evidence from the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry, or find out how to get a ticket to attend in person at www.shekubayohinquiry.scot
To make this podcast we’re spent hours listening to all of the evidence so we can summarise it for you, our listeners. And we need your support to do more.
Join us at theferret.scot/subscribe and get three months free with the code PODCASTOFFER
The stamp is not contested. Infact it was proven to be correct at the end of the last hearing with expert evidence from a soil expert instructed by the Inquiry. But that wouldn’t suit your narrative here would it? The soil from Shekus right boot and left boot were consistent with the soil on the police vest the female police officer was wearing that day and found to be inconsistent with that of PC Walkers boots.