A second police officer is under investigation for assault in connection with an incident last month at Manchester Airport, British authorities said on Thursday.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said in a statement that a second Greater Manchester Police officer has been notified that he is being criminally investigated for assault in connection with an incident in which two other men were arrested.
A fight broke out in the airport terminal on July 23. Three law enforcement officers arrived on the call but were themselves assaulted. During the scuffle, a female officer’s nose was broken, sending all three to the hospital.
While arresting the four men, one of the police officers hit the suspect in the face with a heavy boot and stepped on his head, which was caught on video that sparked outrage online. The next day, an outraged crowd gathered outside the police station, accusing the force of racism and chanting “Shame”, “To hell with the police” and “Allahu Akbar.”
Later it became known that the policeman who beat the detainee was suspended.
Additional video footage later emerged showing the events leading up to the incident, in which three police officers were attacked and inflicted head injuries, including one officer having his nose broken, in the area of a pay point in the terminal car park, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said. It also added:
They are also being investigated for potential gross misconduct for alleged breaches of police professional standards, including their use of force. The serving of the notices does not necessarily mean that criminal charges or misconduct proceedings will follow.
At the end of the investigation, the IOPC will decide whether to refer the case to the Crown Prosecution Service for a decision on whether to press charges and will decide whether the officers should face disciplinary proceedings.
Speaking Tuesday at a news conference in Manchester along with Fahir Amaaz, 19, who was kicked in the head at the airport, his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 25, and their mother, lawyer Aamer Anwar said the family members were devastated and traumatised by the incident, adding that “there was a deliberate attempt to vilify the family.”
At the press conference, he also spoke about what happened on the plane before it landed at Manchester Airport, which formed the basis for the subsequent incidents.
Anwar claims that Fahir and Muhammad’s mother was subjected to racist abuse on board the plane, which left her “extremely unwell” and she tried to move away from the man who she said was intimidating her. When she left the plane she was upset and took the wrong luggage, which she only found out about when she returned home.
According to Anwar, the mother met her sons, who had come to pick her up with her 6-year-old grandson, and told them what had happened on the plane. The sons allegedly spotted a man who she said had racially abused her and spoke to him before heading to the car park where an altercation with police ensued.
The family was shocked by the level of police violence, Anwar said, adding that the 56-year-old mother shouted in Urdu that “they killed my son” after she saw her son being hit with a stun gun.
