‘It’s an excuse to overreach’: families’ anger over UK police restraint deaths blamed on disputed condition

Mohannad Bashir, whose brother Mouayed Bashir died after police restraint. Acute behavioural disturbance was cited in the inquest into his death. Photograph: Mohannad Bashir

A man who died after being restrained by five police officers for almost an hour, mostly face down on the ground, after a 999 call reported that he was “acting strangely”, is one of more than 40 in Britain whose deaths were subsequently blamed on a disputed medical condition.

Bodyworn camera footage captured Krystian Kilkowski, 32, an engineer from Poland, saying he feared he would die as police held him down outside his house in Diss, Norfolk, in August 2020.