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A void in all our lives – remembering Roger Sylvester and one family’s fight for justice
LOUISE RAW pays tribute to a ‘caring and thoughtful’ black council worker whose life was tragically cut short after he was restrained face down in the street by police outside his Tottenham home 20 years ago
Roger Sylvester’s mother Sheila pictured on a silent march of remembrance to 10 Downing Street in 2001

ON Saturday 22 July last year, a police officer chased 20-year-old Rashan Charles into a shop in Hackney. Charles was allegedly acting suspiciously.

Grabbing Charles from behind, the officer threw him face down and jumped on him, holding him down. The dangers of face-down restraint are well known to police: it can cause positional asphyxia, and is supposed to be avoided. 

By the time he was handcuffed, Charles was limp and unresponsive. He died there, on the tiled floor of a convenience store on Hackney’s Kingsland Road. 

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by Mari Yamaguchi