A YOUNG police officer who witnessed the death of Michael Powell said he “was still alive and conscious” on arrival at a police station.
Mr Powell died shortly after he was detained outside his home in Lozells and taken to nearby Thornhill Road police station.
An inquest jury at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall heard from PC Luke Gill, was 20 years-old when Mr Powell died and had been patrolling the streets for less than one year.
He told the court his first impressions of the area was that there were “a lot of gun crime” incidents.
PC Gill said when he arrived in Wilton Road on September 7, 2003, he saw the 38-year-old factory worker being restrained by three police officers.
He said another officer, PC Tim Lewis, had told him he thought Mr Powell “had a gun and had smashed one of the windows of a police vehicle.”
He described Mr Powell as “lying on his back with his hands cuffed above his head”.
He later said Mr Powell had been repositioned on to his front so officers could replace handcuffs on his wrists and carry him to a waiting police van in that position.
PC Gill was one of three officers who sat in the back of the van – one held onto the father-of-three’s legs, while PC Gill said he held on to his right shoulder. He said Mr Powell had been placed into the vehicle “head first” and placed on to the floor on his “left hand side”.
“He was in the same position at all times. I am positive he was not on his front.”
“We tried to speak to him, he was not responding verbally but was looking around and on a few occasions was struggling. He would kick his legs out in a stamping motion.”
Mr Rajiv Menon counsel for the Powell family, re-read a statement by forensic pathologist Jack Crane who had earlier told the jury that if Mr Powell had been placed on his front in the van “he was sure he would have died from positional asphyxia”.
“Even if he was on his side, I am still of the opinion he died of positional asphyxia,” Mr Crane had said.
PC Gill told the court the last time he recalled seeing Mr Powell move was around one to two minutes before the van arrived at the police station.
