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Rashan Charles ‘police death’: Tensions run high in Dalston as protesters block Kingsland Road
Protesters block the road outside Yours Locally in Dalston. Picture: Emma Bartholomew - Credit: Emma Bartholomew
Tensions are running high in Dalston as protesters angry about the death of Rashan Charles hours after he was tackled by police have blocked off Kingsland Road with mattresses, wheelie bins, rubbish bags and broken tables.
A protest outside Yours Locally in Dalston, where Rashan Charles was tackled by police shortly before his death. Picture: Emma Bartholomew - Credit: Emma Bartholomew
About 150 adults and children have assembled outside the Yours Locally shop near the junction with Middleton Road, where the 20-year-old father was chased and forced to the ground in the early hours of Saturday – hours before he died.
Footage circulating on social media, believed to be taken from the CCTV in the shop, shows Mr Charles struggling in an officer’s grip before apparently being pushed to the ground, held down by a member of the public, and handcuffed over the course of two minutes.
Police blocked off the A10 to traffic at about 4pm when some protesters began stopping vehicles from getting past.
Kids could be seen pushing wheelie bins from the estate nearby into Middleton Road, and others became irate with motorists who tried to drive past.
An impromptu road block outside Yours Locally in Dalston on Friday afternoon. Picture: Emma Bartholomew - Credit: Emma Bartholomew
A helicopter is now circling overhead and buses have been diverted.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which is investigating the officers’ role in the events, said cops had been chasing a car in Kingsland Road at 1.45am in which Mr Charles was a passenger, and that he ran into the shop and tried to swallow something.
Boys in masks and hoods block Middleton Road with a wheelie bin. Picture: Emma Bartholomew - Credit: Emma Bartholomew
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An object was apparently removed from his throat at the scene.
He died at the Royal London Hospital soon after.
On Monday evening, angry crowds marched from the shop to Stoke Newington police station – where Rashan’s father called for peace – and back again.
The crowd became angry and started shouting and throwing glass bottles at eight policemen who turned up on motorbikes, and some set fire to bins outside the police station later in the night.
