Newport Mouayed Bashir Cardiff Mohamud Hassan deaths BBC

Mouayed Bashir, 29, died on February 17 after being restrained by Gwent Police officers at his family home. Just three weeks earlier, Mohamud Hassan, 24, died in Cardiff the day he was released from police custody.

The families of both spoke in the documentary – which also included another incident in Newport where video footage showed a Gwent Police officer beating Mikael Boukhari.

The documentary questions the trust of young, black people in the police who are there to protect them and tells the stories of the three men.

Mouayed Bashir

Police arrived at the Bashir home in Newport on February 17 after his concerned parents called 999 for an ambulance after he was suffering a bad mental health episode.

“The room is really small, so can you imagine police officers being in here?” opens Mohannad Bashir, Mr Bashir’s brother, as he walks into Mr Bashir’s bedroom in the documentary. “He just started destroying his bed and taking everything out through the window. They were expecting paramedics but instead police officers in black uniform came in with force.”

Mouayed was facing deportation after getting in trouble with the police. “I think that played a lot into his mental health as that’s when he started acting different,” said younger brother Mohamed Bashir.

They explained how Mr Bashir had been stabbed three weeks earlier and still had a large wound on his leg when he was being restrained by the police. “My dad was trying to open the door to see what was happening and there was just silence. That’s when the police were going back and for asking for the second ambulance,” said Mohannad.

“My dad – the last time he looked at Mouayed was when he was struggling for life, the last few breaths – and then he knew that was it.”

Mohamed said he made his way home that morning after his dad called him and saw around 12 police cars in the street. He walked in the house and into his bedroom and “his bedroom was tipped upside down.” He saw his dad who told him that Mr Bashir was dead.

The post-mortem failed to establish Mr Bashir’s cause of death.

“Straight away, it was unnecessary force by the police,” said Mohamed.

“Hand on heart, I believe personally if the ambulance turned up, it would be a different situation. Mouayed would still be with us,” said Mohannad.

The inquest for Mr Bashir will be held between July 11-15.

Speaking to the Argus on the day the documentary aired, Mohannad said how filming the documentary with the BBC was hard but he was pleased with how the documentary came out. He hopes it will make people aware of what happened to Mouayed.

“The hardest part was when we were filming in the room, I’m in now and I was looking at where Mouayed took his last breath. When we stopped filming, I sat down with my head in my hands and just cried.

“When I went to my local gym, the film crew were with me and people were asking me what it was for. When I explained what happened, they were shocked that something like that happened in our city.”

Mohannad told the Argus that the Bashir family has formed a bond with the Hassan family and are in contact to support each other. He described how meeting in person for the first time at the BBC’s studios in Cardiff for a preview of the documentary was ‘overwhelming’ and how they sat down together and were comparing notes on the cases to make sure that progress was being made to help each family get closure.

He also explained how after almost a year of campaigning, the Bashir family will be able to view the bodycam footage next month. He said: “If it came six months ago, we could have accepted it, but these past six months, we as a family have begun to heal and viewing the footage will rip open those wounds.”

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Mikael Boukhari

Mikael Boukhari was “in fear” after meeting Gwent Police officers at a park in Bettws in July where he was asked to attend to show some documents after being questioned about driving offences. He went to hand the documents over and the officer grabbed him.

He ran into a friend’s garden where he was pepper sprayed and hit a number of times with a police baton – footage filmed by the friend went viral. Mr Boukhari said he did hit back a couple of times as “if I don’t do something he might seriously hurt or kill me. So I bit his arm. He said to get off his arm but I wouldn’t because he would hurt me.

“So he got his arm on my neck and I was trying to move a little bit to get my breath.” The officer was captured hitting him on the head before handcuffing him. Mr Boukhari was taken to hospital. His driving charges were dropped but he is being investigated for assaulting a police officer and obstructing justice.

Mohamud Hassan

On Friday, January 8, 2021, police were called to a property in Cardiff and arrested Mohamud Hassan after a disturbance. He was released the following day. His aunt, Zainab Hassan, spoke to the programme saying how she received a call from her niece that Mr Hassan was not breathing.

Mr Hassan’s aunt described him as being mischievous and handsome. Sulieman Mohamed, uncle to Mr Hassan, said how he always showed love. They shared that Mr Hassan was expecting his first baby at the time of his death.

Mrs Hassan said: “They kept hitting him against the surfaces and pinned him down to handcuff him. He mentioned there were over eight police officers in the kitchen with him and they kept hitting him to get him into the police van.”

He was arrested on suspicion of breach of the police and taken to Cardiff Police Station. Two of the police officers were being investigated and Mr Hassan was viewed on bodycam footage complaining of having a fit, a migraine and being in pain according to the IOPC.

“Why is he in pain? What happened to him after leaving the flat?”

Three other officers are being investigated over welfare checks and a further over risk assessment failure. When Mr Hassan was released, he got a taxi back home and went to Mr Mohamed’s house. Mr Mohamed said: “I was shocked, his upper lip was open and he had blood on his top.”

“He had bruises on his arms and torso, when he lifted his top up, he had marks. It was shocking,” said Ms Hassan.

Mr Hassan refused to go to hospital and went back to his flat to sleep. Ms Hassan’s niece called her that night saying he was not breathing and went over. The paramedics were there but there was nothing they could do. “There are so many questions. We still don’t know what happened to Mohamud.”

The post-mortem failed to establish the cause of death and an inquest is being held in May 2023. The IOPC are still investigating.

“I don’t know any young black boy or girl who shows trust in the police,” said Uzo Iwobi, chief executive of Race Council Cymru.

Death of Two Black Men: Police in the Spotlight is presented by Mo Jannah and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

There will be a remembrance for Mouayed at Newport Railway Station on February 12 at midday. Mohannad hopes this will be a peaceful remembrance of his life and said he was touched that this would be taking place.