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Aunt of Harvey Evans says the 15 year old was targeted by South Wales Police and “arrested 30 times over the last two years.”

The majority of those arrested over the disturbance that followed the boys’ deaths are aged just 16 and 15. 

One worker reveals the extent of Cardiff council cuts in the area, with one youth centre closing entirely: “The youth service was cut by millions, so loads of people lost their jobs.”

By Oojal Kour and SC Cook. Cover image: The memorial on Snowden Road, Ely, for Kyrees Sullivan and Harvey Evans, copyright voice.wales.

Family members of Harvey Evans and Kyrees Sullivan, the best friends aged just 15 and 16 who were killed in a road collision in Ely last week, have blamed the police for their deaths and pledged to get justice. 

During a vigil on Wednesday evening in Ely, the mother of Kyrees Sullivan said South Wales Police bore responsibility for the tragedy. “The police killed my son. I’ve got nothing else to say,” she told the gathered crowd.  

Harvey’s aunt, Hayley Murphy, echoed the statement just two days later. “They were two children who were chased to their death by South Wales Police,” Ms Murphy told the BBC. “That is basically it.”

She was speaking after around 1500 people gathered in Ely on Friday night to set off balloons to remember the boys. In an event wrought with emotion, the police were asked to stay away. 

“The only thing we can do is stay strong as a family and as a community and just continue fighting, because we will get justice,” Ms Murphy said. 

She also revealed how her nephew had been arrested “30 times” in the last two years by South Wales Police, claiming that “there’s been not one charge that’s stuck”. 

She even described an incident where the family was on holiday and officers believed that he had done something wrong. “He wasn’t even in the country.”

It has also come to light that the only people to face any action following the deaths are children themselves, with the majority of those arrested after the unrest following the boys’ deaths are under the age of eighteen. Three of the arrests involved children aged just 15 years old. 

In total, nine people have been arrested and remain in custody on suspicion of public disturbance. It includes four males aged 16, 17, 18, and 29 from Ely, and a 21-year-old from Tremorfa. 

This follows four arrests that were made after the disorder, which include two 15-year-old boys from Ely and Llanrumney, a 16-year-old boy from Ely, and a 15-year-old girl from Roath, who are on police bail pending further enquiries. 

So far, no police officers have been interviewed under caution or suspended for misconduct. 

“That’s what got everyone angry.”

After reports of a collision involving the boys on Snowden Road, Ely, at around 6 pm Monday, tension broke out between locals and the police, resulting in a protracted stand-off and around three cars being torched. 

Harvey’s grandmother, Dawn Rees, revealed how the situation quickly escalated. “We were stood at the barrier and we were begging them, begging them, to tell us if they were alive or dead, and they wouldn’t tell us nothing. And then, someone ran into the crowd and said ‘I’ve got a video of the police chasing them’. And that is what started it.”

“That’s what got everyone angry, so I understand because we wasn’t getting no answers.”

One local, John Urquhart, speaking to voice.wales the following day, also revealed that police had kept a large group of locals from entering their homes on the junction of Jackson Road and Wilson Road. 

“Residents didn’t know why they weren’t allowed in,” they said. “And the police didn’t go into the crowds to say, if you live here, you can’t go in at the moment.”

“They did none of the soft things. They just used all of the hard spiky stuff. And I don’t think you can go into any community that’s just suffered a bereavement, of the kind that involves two kids being killed on a scooter, kids who you see everyday go past your house…I don’t think you can do that. I don’t think you can go into a community like that and be spiky, and expect anything other than what happened last night.”

In the moments that followed the incident, key witnesses, including friends of the victims, claimed that the police were chasing the boys, who had both been on an electric bike. 

But just as quickly, the police sought to control the narrative, making no mention that they had been pursuing the boys, instead referring only to a “large group who were intent on causing crime and disorder” in the area. 

It was a line that was absorbed by the press at the time who emphasised that the incident “had already occurred when officers arrived,” implying that the police had no involvement in the situation. 

As the dust settled on Tuesday morning, the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales, Alun Michael, labelled as “false rumours” the idea that the boys were being pursued.

“The impression that was given was that youngsters were being chased by the police and an accident happened immediately one to the other,” he said. “That I’m still assured is not what happened.”

But less than 24 hours later, it was locals themselves who revealed what had really happened. Domestic CCTV footage was handed to the BBC showing a police vehicle following an e-bike just four minutes prior to the fatal crash, half a mile away from the scene. 

Shortly after, a press conference was held where South Wales Police Chief Superintendent Martyn Stone admitted that the police had trailed the kids, but insisted that no police vehicles were present on Snowden Road during the crash.

The following morning, Alun Michael was back on the radio, but was still insisting that he was in the right. Michael claimed he was “still assured” that the boys “were not being chased by the police at the time of the road traffic accident.” 

But later that day, additional footage showing yet more evidence that the boys were being chased was released by Ely residents. 

A friend of the two also claimed that one of the police officers had a grudge against the kids and had previously attempted to “run them off the road”. Locals also stated that police had an issue with e-bikes in the area, with the two boys having regular run-ins with one of the cops. 

There were calls for Alun Michael to resign amid accusations that he was nothing more than a mouthpiece for the police who had lied to the community. 

But he was also defended by his fellow Labour party member and Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, who said that Michael was “entitled” to rely on the information he received from South Wales Police, and accused those calling for his head of playing “political football” with the situation. 

“We are not reckless thugs.”

On top of this, a picture has emerged of a particularly heavy handed response to a grieving community in the immediate aftermath of the deaths. 

John Urquhart, who lives nearby, witnessed one of the cops during the incident escalate the situation by shoving a teenager. They said, “He was shoving the kid hard – really not needed, the kid was just wound up…Nearly pushed him to the floor the last time. Totally unnecessary force.”

A woman at the tributes, who wished to remain anonymous, meanwhile said that the police in Ely always targeted young people. She added that the entire community had to speak to the police to let the families of the two kids through to see them. 

According to her, even reaching that stage came with extreme prejudice, as the police treated them like “hooligans” and “put rings” around them. 

Another eyewitness, Barry Francis, said on Facebook that there was no animosity or hostility from anybody in the community, who were “shell-shocked” and “in mourning”. She said, “Out of the blue, the police made — in my opinion — an aggressive charge to disperse everybody with no warning or asking anybody to clear the area first!”

“I am proud of my community and I am proud of where I am from… We are not reckless thugs, there were triggers!”

“They [Cardiff Council] didn’t value the youth service.”

One long term trigger that has also come to light is the way in which Ely has seen good jobs disappear and public funding cut by government at all levels. 

There is anger that one of Cardiff Council’s most prominent and senior figures, Russell Goodway, has built a name for himself by heading up lucrative investment projects in the city while the area he represents, Ely, has seen investment drain away. Goodway himself lives in the more affluent Vale of Glamorgan. 

One caller on BBC Radio Wales on Wednesday slammed the councillor over the situation, saying “where is the representation? Where is the investment!?”

Equally, First Minister Mark Drakeford is the MS for Ely, and both his Welsh Labour government and Cardiff Council have slashed essential services in the area. 

Drakeford admitted on Friday that both governments had questions to answer about how they supported the area, as he announced a new community initiative for Ely. But his statement failed to detail the exact initiatives that will be carried out in Ely.

In an interview with the Guardian, Drakeford accused the Tory Government in Westminster of deteriorating social and economic conditions that formed the backdrop of the riot.

Drakeford, who was a youth justice worker in Ely during the bread riots in 1991 said, “It’s 13 years of the erosion, the systematic erosion, of the things that sustain community life. You fray social fabric at your peril, and we see what happened on Monday.”

But whilst austerity has come from Westminster, it has generally been accepted without much resistance by Welsh Government, who in turn have passed cuts onto local authorities. 

Speaking to voice.wales last week, one youth worker who did not want to be named after Cardiff Council said they were not allowed to speak out about the issues, laid bare the extent of cuts they had been subjected to:

“They [the council] cut the youth service. There used to be two youth centres, one over that side of Ely, one over this side. The youth service was cut by millions, so loads of people lost their jobs. This was five, six years ago, but it’s been like it every year: more cuts, more cuts, loads of redundancies. The one centre was completely closed down. So there’s not that community thing. We used to have 60 or 70 kids a night coming in there, and it was the hardcore kids of Ely. But now it’s like..there’s not much for them to do. A lot of them struggle. It is a poor area.”

“They [Cardiff Council] didn’t value the youth service.”

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