V
ital evidence showing a struggle between a police officer and a robbery suspect who died after falling into a canal was lost after the PC’s body-worn camera was obscured by his cycling jacket, an inquest has heard.
PC Gary Collins, had been on a warning from Hackney MPS for not activating his body-worn camera in a previous stop-and-search, when he gave chase to student Lamont Roper, 23,
They decided to confront the group, consisting of two black and two white males, after a series of knifepoint robberies in the area with suspects described as black males aged between 16 and 24, wearing dark clothing and face masks.
The spate of violent robberies had culminated in one victim being stabbed four times just days before the fatal chase on October 7 last year.
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PC Collins told the inquest on Tuesday he quickly caught up with a fleeing Mr Roper using his electric-assisted police bike but, body-worn camera footage of the struggle was obscured underneath PC Collins’ cycling jacket.
The Roper family’s lawyer Allison Munroe QC asked why he didn’t undo his jacket as he gave chase so the camera would work.
He replied: “For me, I thought it would throw me off balance on uneven ground, cobbled areas.
“It was a risk to myself to start playing around with zippers. I made the decision not to activate the body worn camera.”
Audio of Mr Roper’s final moments was played to a jury at the inquest at North London Coroner’s Court on Tuesday.
The audio captures Mr Roper’s last words “I haven’t done anything, just let me go”.
The struggle ends after PC Collins claims he felt the hilt of a machete in Mr Roper’s waistband and backs off in fear with the camera picking up the officer saying: “Ok go, go”.
Two seconds later a splash is heard as Mr Roper, who could not swim, enters the water of Lock 17 in Tottenham Hale.
The camera then switches on with footage capturing PC Collins frantic attempts to call for help.
Through heavy breaths PC Collins calls out on his radio: “A male in the canal fallen in by Tottenham Hale. Control, he’s not coming up.
“I can’t get down to him. Control get LAS he’s not coming up. F***!”
Asked why he didn’t call out to Mr Roper, he replied: “I could see Mr Roper drowning I don’t believe words would have helped him. Only actions would have helped more than words by that point.”
PC Collins said he couldn’t see any buoys or ropes to throw to Mr Roper who had “dissappeared” under the surface.
Four minutes pass as PC Collins waits for a throw rope for himself so he can try to retrieve a floundering Mr Roper.
Lamont Roper and Lock 17 where his body was found
/ Family handout/Google Maps
PC Collins told the jury about his attempts to save the student stripping down to his boxers before jumping in.
He said: “I started to swim over to where I last saw Mr Roper but I could feel my muscles seizing up in the cold so swam back to the side to compose myself.
“I swim back successfully and try to start looking for Mr Roper and I saw him.
“I went under the water opened my eyes but it was too dark to see him.
“I tried again but it was too dark.
“I tried to feel the bottom of the lock with my feet to feel something beneath me at that point I identified a little hold on the edge of lock.
“Someone found a torch for me to use I went underneath with a torch trying to look around.
“The sheer murkiness meant I could only see 1-2 feet in front of me and not much further.
“I try once more to go underwater and with the torch but no luck.
“An officer threw me a throw rope and I started to swim back to exit the lock.
“With that I climbed up the ladder I told another officer where I last saw Mr Roper.”
In the aftermath captured on his discarded body camera, PC Collins tells a colleague: “He’s f***ing jumped straight in there.
“I’ve seen him go under and he ain’t come back up.”
Another officer asks PC Collins: “Can he swim the suspect?”
Collins replies: “He just sank.”
Before adding: “That f***er jumped in the canal.”
Questioned about the use of his language at the inquest with Mr Roper’s family listening in, the officer backtracked: “I mean it like poor f***er, not in a sinister way.
“I’m not meaning to be derogatory. It was a conversation with my colleague and I may have been in shock from the situation.
“I was worried about that f***er, I wasn’t painting him in a bad light to my colleague.
“I wasn’t projecting anything onto him.”
The inquest at North London Coroner’s Court continues.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/lamont-roper-inquest-pc-body-camera-obscured-during-vital-seconds-b967887.html
