The partner of Sheku Bayoh was told that “a black male had been found dead”, according to police evidence read out at an inquiry investigating the his death.
The statement came from Detective Sergeant Dursley, who was one of the officers involved in the police incident in which Mr Bayoh, 31, died after he being restrained on the ground by six officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in May 2015. Mr Bayoh’s sister, Kadi Johnson, had previously told the inquiry she believes her brother was handled the way he was because he was black.
She also said that she and her family began to feel “suspicious” after being given different versions of how her brother died. The inquiry, being held at Capital House in Edinburgh, is investigating the circumstances of his death and whether race was a factor.
