Exclusive: Watchdog backs police in shooting inquiry

It was a decision that cost him his life. Five days later, on July 11, 2008, in daylight outside a barber’s shop, he was shot in the back from two feet with a sawn-off shotgun.

Tarek was a keen rapper who went by the street name “GT” or “Global Threat” and had acquaintances in Sheffield’s rival “postcode” gangs, S3 and S4.

Could South Yorkshire Police have done more to protect him? Tarek’s grieving father, Rashid Chaiboub, says yes, but an independent investigation has found that detectives worked “diligently” on the stabbing case, only to meet a wall of silence from the community.

Mr Chaiboub claimed that South Yorkshire Police only took the stabbing seriously when it was too late, after his son had been murdered.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has taken another view, however, and will today announce that it has not substantiated any of Mr Chaiboub’s complaints against the force.

The watchdog’s findings, seen by the Yorkshire Post, show that two officers were at the scene of the stabbing within four minutes of Mr Chaiboub dialling 999.

Tarek claimed he had been jumped on from behind and did not know who had attacked him.

Officers asked him more questions - at the house, in the ambulance and at the hospital - but he “appeared unable or unwilling” to give details that would help them.

The IPCC found that the officers then liaised with a team of detectives investigating another stabbing to see if there was a connection. There was little intelligence to suggest that Tarek’s life was in danger.

The officers claimed they tried to help Tarek, even offering to have an alarm or camera fitted in Tarek’s home. Mr Chaiboub has disputed this, and the IPCC found that police kept no record of the offer.

Detectives could have pursued some lines of enquiry “more vigorously”, the IPCC concluded, and they may have gleaned more information if they had interviewed Tarek while his father was present. But investigators were satisfied that police had already begun forensic and other work in relation to the stabbing before the shooting occurred.

Four men were convicted of Tarek’s murder. They were Michael Chattoo, Denzil Ramsey, Levan Menzies and gang leader Nigel Ramsey, who was a serving inmate at Wolds prison but was able to orchestrate the killing using a smuggled mobile phone. Chattoo and Nigel Ramsey were also found guilty of attempted murder in relation to Tarek’s stabbing, along with Javan Galloway.

IPCC Commissioner Nicholas Long said: “My sympathies go out again to Tarek’s father and his family. He tried to do the best for his son and his sense of despair at what Tarek had become involved in was evident.

“Within the space of a week he had to deal with him being badly injured in a stabbing and then murdered. It is entirely understandable that one of his reactions was to question whether South Yorkshire Police had done enough.

“However the fact that Tarek was associated with this gang culture may have influenced his response to police questioning when he was stabbed.

“It is clear he and his friends did not co-operate or assist the police investigation. Our investigation has shown that the officers were following lines of enquiry, speaking to relevant people and checking intelligence.

“With hindsight some lines of enquiry, such as Tarek himself, could have been pursued more vigorously, but after his initial unwillingness to assist the investigation he was not spoken to again in the five days before his murder.”

South Yorkshire Police declined to comment on the IPCC’s findings.