Tasered and wrongly detained inside a chip shop
A young man was tasered and wrongly detained in a chip shop by eight firearms officers who were looking for an armed suspect. He speaks exclusively to Ria Chatterjee about the ordeal.
Abdul-Lateef Ajibike and I first meet on Zoom with his lawyers. He smiles broadly, enthusiastically asking questions about the filming process.
On 29 January 2023, Abdul-Lateef’s life changed immeasurably in minutes.
Aged 17 at the time, he was wrongly detained by eight firearms officers in a chip shop in East London. He was tasered twice; left bleeding, bruised and unable to walk.
Abdul-Lateef, 20, feels compelled to share his story for the first time.
‘Why me?’
Abdul-Lateef has spent the last three years asking one question: “Why me?”
Following our Zoom meeting, he decides to speak exclusively to Channel 4 News about his ordeal and to share with us the CCTV footage that captured the incident.
“I need to speak out sooner rather than later,” Abdul-Lateef says.
“I’ve learned that keeping stuff within me can only hurt me more. What I saw was guns pointing in my direction. I was like, ‘don’t shoot, don’t shoot’.”
29 January, 2023
It’s coming up to 7pm on a cold Sunday in January. Liverpool have just been eliminated from the FA Cup and, as an avid supporter, Abdul-Lateef is feeling deflated.
He heads to the Great British Dish chip shop on Prince Regent Lane in the London borough of Newham. In a long, black coat, Abdul-Lateef waits for his food. The two owners go about their business. There’s no one else in the shop.
In the dark outside, unbeknown to the three people inside, firearms officers wait in single file. A resident across the road spots the officers and pulls out her phone to film.
Channel 4 News has obtained that footage.
To the left of the screen, Abdul-Lateef can be seen leaving the chip shop; to the right, the officers creep forward and then charge.
CCTV footage from inside the shop shows Abdul-Lateef leaving with his food, before catapulting back inside just two seconds later with such force and speed that one of his shoes comes flying off. He’s been tasered twice.
‘Please stop. What did I do?’
“As soon as I turn left, ‘freeze, freeze, freeze. Pow, pow, pow’. All of a sudden, I’m on the floor, they’re hitting me. They’re using their gun to hit me. They’re punching me, they’re kicking me. Like I’m not feeling pain, but I’m just like ‘stop, stop, please stop. Please stop. What did I do? What did I do? Please stop’.”
Abdul-Lateef is on the floor and pushed up against the wall for just over two minutes.
During that time, he’s in handcuffs with a gun pointed at his head. Eventually, he’s lifted to his feet, with his handcuffs on, and the officers continue talking to him.
Finally, they realise they’ve tasered the wrong person.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation found that the officers failed to obtain a sufficient description of the suspect before stopping Ajibike.
Witness call logs
Channel 4 News has seen the 999 call logs documenting the information provided by two separate witnesses.
Caller one and caller two ring at roughly the same time, reporting sightings of a man with a gun.
Crucially, caller one is a third-party witness, who isn’t on the scene, while caller two is on the scene.
The eyewitness describes the suspect as: “ic3m, 30 years old, a medium build, wearing headphones and a green hoody”.
A few minutes later, the third-party witness describes the suspect as having a “long khaki jacket and a bottle of JD”.
The eyewitness then says the suspect “isn’t in the chip shop”.
Police logs
This is reiterated in the police log: “suspect has left the chip shop”.
At 7pm, Abdul-Lateef’s presence is noted. The log says: “He will not be ident… he has a long black jacket.” That means he’s not the suspect as he has a long, black jacket.
So why was he detained?
“If you’re not sure about something, you don’t do it. You don’t take the chance, or whether it’s 50/50 with especially something like this, you know, because I could have died,” Abdul-Lateef says.
Lawyers’ allegations
Abdul-Lateef’s lawyers allege that officers discriminated against him because of his race.
With discrimination allegations, IOPC guidelines require officers to reflect on whether they could have done anything differently to change the complainant’s experience of discrimination.
In this case, every officer responded with a variation of: “I don’t feel anything could have been done differently.”
The allegation wasn’t upheld but it did conclude that some officers could have been more open in their reflections, describing it as an “opportunity” for “learning or improvement in practice”.
“In this case, I’m guessing they just heard ‘Black guy,’ and ‘Black guy in fish and chip shop,’ which was me,” Abdul-Lateef said.
A report released in April by the Children’s Commissioner found that Black children are almost five times as likely to have force used than their white counterparts.
Metropolitan Police response
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police told Channel 4 News: “Officers were responding to reports that an armed suspect had pointed a gun at someone. The person believed to be the suspect was challenged and was Tasered by officers who believed they saw him reaching for something. When no gun was found he was released.
“Being stopped by armed police is always going to be alarming. It’s likely to leave a lasting impact and we’ve apologised to Mr Ajibike for what he experienced.
“However, officers don’t have the benefit of hindsight, and the public would expect them to treat every situation as if they were dealing with a genuine armed threat.
“A complaint investigation following this incident did not find that the use of force was excessive or that there was racial discrimination.”
Flashbacks and nightmares
After the incident, Abdul-Lateef was housebound for a couple of weeks, and he missed two months of school. He fell behind with his coursework and exams, which impacted his grades and complicated his route to university.
In many ways, Abdul-Lateef has felt unable to talk to his family or anyone else about his experience.
He still has flashbacks and nightmares; his heart rate pounds whenever he remembers the incident.
“I’ve cried more in this three years than I have the previous 17 years of my life beforehand,” he says.
“If I’ve been honest, it’s like only recently when I realised that I’m not okay.”
‘It gets really hard’
He pauses and tries to collect himself, but the realisation hits him hard, and he breaks down.
“I want to get better, you know, I’ll try. I’m always trying to be happy for my mum, my siblings around me so they know I’m strong, that I’m healing. But sometimes it gets hard. It gets really hard.”
Abdul-Lateef is back at university now, following his ambitions. He tells me he wants to start a therapy group for young people who’ve experienced trauma.
He says the settlement of the civil case didn’t bring him closure - but rather a realisation that he’ll carry what happened for the rest of his life.
Tasered at the chip shop - analysing a wrongful detainment
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Absolutely disgusting and original 2 tier policing. Done purposely to most black people, and at times they ignore the proof that person has on them and just carry out the brutality. For example, getting involved with a mum & her young son over a bus/train ticket. Here they removed the child who became hysterical, handcuffed his mum who kept stating she had the ticket on her & was repeatedly ignored by the police officers. Then we see 15 police, all whilst the child becomes more upset, scared and hysterical, the more he sees and hears & is stopped from being with his mum. It took a stranger to repeatedly ask why they stopped her, why did they get involved in the train companys business i stead of BTP, and the effect on her child, as well as them not listening to her stating she had the ticket. Only then was she allowed to show the evidence which traumatised the child & took 15 police to deal with. I've noticed from decades ago that the police will try to break as many black male youths as possible to get deep into their mental health, & make them scared of the police, react as if guilty, only to be further abused, arrested and locked up. Plus rarely given the rights & justice they deserve. No matter whst happens, the police will never change 😠🤬🤬🤬
I found this interview so moving. I was heartbroken for Abdul-Lateef. The police have a lot to answer for here. Please do pass on my very best wishes to him for the future.