Inquest opens into death of Birmingham man struck by police car
A father of three with a history of mental illness died in police custody after being struck by a patrol car called to his home, an inquest jury was told today.
The panel heard that Michael Powell, 38, was also struck with a baton before being restrained and taken to Birmingham's Thornhill Road police station in September 2003.
Opening the inquest, which is expected to last for six weeks, the assistant deputy coroner for Birmingham, Stephen Campbell, said medical experts did not believe that Mr Powell died as a result of being struck by the car or the baton.
Giving the jury a "framework" of the evidence it will hear, the coroner said the inquest had been delayed because of other proceedings and investigations into the death, which occurred while Mr Powell was living at his mother's home in Wilton Street, Lozells.
During his opening remarks, Mr Campbell told jurors they would have to decide the medical cause of the death after hearing from a number of experts.
But the coroner told the 11-member panel: "The pathologists do not believe that the injuries from the collision with the car or the injuries from being struck by the baton... were direct causes of the death."
Mr Campbell stated that a medical witness due to give evidence at the inquest believed that Mr Powell died from a complication of sickle cell trait, while one pathologist believed that on one view of the evidence, the medical cause of death was positional asphyxia.
"The other medical experts, the other pathologists, suggest at the moment that the cause of death is unascertained or is probably contributed to by a number of different factors," the coroner said.
Outlining the events which preceded the death, Mr Campbell said: "At close to midnight on Saturday 6th September, Mr Powell was behaving in what may be considered to be a rather odd way.
"One of the things that he did was to break a front window at his mother's house."
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