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The City of London police are to handle an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the death of a man at the G20 protests. Ian Tomlinson, 47, died of a heart attack behind police cordons whilst police and protesters clashed nearby on 1 April. Indications were that the man had died of natural causes, and then there was word that he had been struck by a missile. However, several corroborative witness statements have been given that Tomlinson was either struck by a police baton on the back of the head or forcibly pushed resulting in a fall and blow to the skull on impact.
"Oversee"
The IPCC will "oversee" the investigation that Tomlinson had "conduct" with officers before he died. Riot police and mounted officers were involved in sporadic violence all day around the Bank of England, in what some have dubbed "the Battle of Threadneedle Street". Thousands of peaceful demonstrators were sealed off around the Royal Exchange without access to water or toilet facilities for hours in a controversial police crowd control method called 'kettleing' that hemms people in. CCTV shows man collapse IPCC Commissioner for London Deborah Glass said CCTV footage shows Mr Tomlinson collapsing on Cornhill. She said: "Initially we had accounts from independent witnesses who were on Cornhill, who told us that there had been no contact between the police and Mr Tomlinson when he collapsed. "However, other witnesses who saw him in the Royal Exchange area have since told us that Mr Tomlinson did have contact with police officers. "This would have been a few minutes before he collapsed. It is important that we are able to establish as far as possible whether that contact had anything to do with his death."
Photo credit - Melaine Robinson
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