Sheku Bayoh: PC says she feared suspect would kill her

A former police officer has told the Sheku Bayoh public inquiry she feared he was going to kill her during a chase on a Fife street.

Mr Bayoh, 31, died after being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy in May 2015 as they responded to reports of a man armed with a knife.

Nicole Short recalled he shouted an expletive then added: "Come on then."

The ex-PC also told the inquiry she suffered an "almighty blow" to the back of the head as she tried to run away.

Describing the moment she first saw Mr Bayoh, Ms Short said he was "cold, almost blank, unresponsive, in a world of his own, disconnected, pumped up".

She said he then turned "violent" and came towards her punching the air like a boxer.

The former officer added: "That's when the real terror came across me.

"I've never seen a more frightening and crazy man in my life and he was out of control."

Ms Short, who left Police Scotland after the incident seven years ago, said Mr Bayou seemed unaffected by CS spray that had been used on him.

She added: "I could see he was on something, his pupils were big and black and nothing was registering. The spray hadn't worked, which I had never seen before.

"He was lifting the other officers, who were big and he wasn't listening to them. He was deranged with super human strength."

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Ms Short "shuffled" back to keep a distance between them and swiped her baton twice in the air when he continued to move towards her.

When his face came into her "personal space" she turned and ran.

Ms Short said: "I was completely overcome with fear, I was shaking all over my body."

When he was an arms-length away from her she said she was "completely overwhelmed with terror".

"I was screaming when I was running away from him and saying 'no'. I felt his presence was right behind me. I remember this almighty blow to the back of my head.

"I tried to stay on my feet but I just couldn't. The ground is the most dangerous place you can be."

Sheku Bayoh died after being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy in May 2015

She said after being unable to get up two or three times she curled up on her side on the ground.

Ms Short added: "I had no idea what was going on and I was crying."

The ex-officer's colleague PC Alan Paton reached her, picked her by the strap of her stab vest and said "run to the van".

Ms Short told the inquiry she staggered while clutching her side to the van.

"I thought I need to get as far away from this as possible," she said.

Ms Short added: "I remember thinking he was going to get to me and finish me off."

She said she was soaking wet from being on the ground as it had been raining.

Her belt was twisted up around her body, her ear piece had fallen out and her radio was upside down.

Ms Short said: "I can honestly say I thought the guy was going to kill me and I had resigned myself to dying."

She said in the van she felt "absolutely broken" and burst out crying.

"All I can compare it to is when a child really cries, I couldn't catch my breath and I was shaking."

She said later she was told by a colleague that she had been stamped on by Mr Bayoh every time she tried to get up. She was also told at the hospital she had been unconscious.

Ms Short later saw what looked like a footprint on her police vest.

She said she went back to hospital the next day because she had felt "almost constantly drunk and in a lot of pain". She said she "felt dizzy, not myself, speech was different" and developed a stutter which she was worried about it.

The inquiry has been told Ms Short has been rendered "permanently disabled" by injuries she sustained on the day of Mr Bayoh's death.

CS spray

She had earlier said two of her male police officer colleagues had sprayed him with CS spray, which Mr Bayoh wiped off his face "like it was water".

Ms Short said: "He was completely unaffected by it."

In her training she recalled CS spray had "incapacitated" her.

The police officers had confronted Mr Bayoh following reports he had been attacking vehicles in Hayfield Road while carrying a knife.

Ms Short said her colleagues actions were "completely in line with the level of violence and resistance Mr Bayoh was showing".

She said: "He was bordering on overcoming them."

She said she could see from the van the rest of the events unfold.

She said: "I can't say for certain who was where, but I just remember Mr Bayoh, I'm positive he was in a kind of press-up position and he was trying to get up off the ground.

"I just remember thinking, 'those are three of the biggest guys on shift and he's managing to lift them up'. It was like nothing I had ever seen before in my life."

Lord Bracadale is examining the immediate circumstances leading to the death of Mr Bayoh, how the police dealt with the aftermath, the following investigation, and whether race was a factor.

When asked, by senior counsel to the Inquiry Angela Grahame QC, if Mr Bayoh's skin colour affected her actions Ms Short said: "My reactions would have been the same. Skin colour had absolutely no bearing on how we reacted whatsoever.

"When I look back on the situation there is nothing else we could have done differently."

The inquiry continues.