Committed Man Beaten by Cops in Ambulance, Injected in Head, Dies in Hospital

A man detained under the mental health act was beaten by police, left handcuffed on the floor of a hospital ward and injected in the head just days before he died, an inquest heard.

Kingsley Burrell died on 31 March 2011, four days after he was detained after a disturbance at a shop in Birmingham.

Kingsley Burrell died on 31 March 2011, four days after he had been detained under the Mental Health Act

His family has previously claimed he was restrained using excessive force.

In July, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone over his death.

The 29-year-old died at the Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital from a cardiac arrest.

An inquest at Birmingham Coroners Court heard he was taken to a mental health unit after calling emergency services to the Haymer shop in Winson Green on 27 March 2011, claiming he had been threatened by two armed men while with his four-year-old son.

His sister Kadisha Brown-Burrell said she had visited the mental health unit at the QE Hospital later in the day and been concerned by his condition.

‘Lumps on head’

“When he walked over he walked over stiff. He couldn’t move his head, couldn’t move his body, couldn’t move his shoulders,” she said.

“Kingsley had three lumps, one on his forehead. I said to [his partner] Chantelle ‘take a photo of that’.”

She told the inquest when she visited the following day her brother had urinated and had been left on the floor in handcuffs for five or six hours.

“He said that while he was in the QE during assessment he was on the floor, and all he wanted was a glass of water,” she said.

Ms Brown-Burrell said her brother, a father-of-three, had described being involved in a struggle with police officers in the back of an ambulance.

“Kingsley said ‘They’ve drugged me up in the head, they have injected me into my brain’.”

Police officers told the family he had gone “berserk” in the ambulance and attacked his own son, and had to be restrained.

‘Gun to head’

Ms Brown-Burrell described her brother as “calm, collected and outgoing”, but said he had been worried by a paternity issue with an ex-girlfriend, who claimed her son was not his.

The jury was told he had been worried two men in the shop in Winson Green had come to threaten him over that issue and he had dialled 999 to say that armed gang members had “put a machine gun” to his head.

CCTV footage played to the court, however, revealed no sign of armed men but showed Mr Burrell looking agitated near the counter.

Andy Gillespie, a firefighter who was one of the first on the scene, described Mr Burrell as “very distressed” and said “it was almost that he felt relieved that he hadn’t been shot”.

The inquest also heard that Mr Burrell had been carrying a CS canister on the day he was detained, as well as claims that he was a gang member and drug dealer. His partner Chantelle Graham said he was not a heavy drug user.

Many of his family wore red T-shirts to the inquest with his photo and the slogan “Justice for Kingsley Burrell”.

The inquest is expected to last six weeks.