independent race and refugee news network


	Topics

Government policy

Policing and criminal justice system

Violence and harassment

Asylum seekers and refugees

Education

Media

Employment

Extreme-Right politics

Features

Statistics and definitions

Quiz

Schools against deportations

Reclaiming the struggle

Far-Right in Europe

Alarming catalogue of deaths

By Liz Fekete

1 August 1997

CS spray victim?

The Police Complaints Authority is investigating the death of Peter San Pedro, a 25-year-old musician from north London, who died on 3 April shortly after being sprayed in the face with CS spray. He had been arrested on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant and sprayed, allegedly for resisting arrest. After being arrested on proof that he was living legally in the country, he was thought to have been so disoriented from the effects of the spray that he ran on to a busy road, where he was hit by a car.

Death follows drugs suspicion arrest

Lytton Shannan, a black man from Wolverhampton, died in police custody on 1 May, shortly after being arrested on suspicion of drugs possession. The man's family disputes the police account that Shannon collapsed on arrival after suffering an 'epileptic fit', as he had never suffered from fits or epilepsy before.

Family unhappy about suicide account

A 20-year-old black man, Marlon Downes, was found hanging by his shoelaces in a cell at Harlesden police station, north London, in the early hours of 23 March, after being charged with rape. Marlon's family, who were not allowed to visit him the day before his death, dispute the reason for his arrest and do not believe that he would have killed himself.

Unanswered questions following prisoner's death

An investigation has been launched after Abel Mukuna died on 12 March in Greenwich hospital, five days after beginning an eight-week sentence in Belmarsh prison for driving while banned. His wife, Aminata, says that he had complained about the prison conditions and he had lost weight. The next time she saw him he was in hospital, unable to walk or talk. He regained consciousness briefly and told his wife that he had been beaten. A post mortem found that he had died from a swelling of his brain.

CARF 38, June/July 1997

privacy | using our content | advertising | support us