Yassar’s parents join Black Lives Matter protest
SON SHOT DEAD BY POLICE OFFICER
THE parents of a man who was fatally shot by a police marksman on a motorway sliproad in Huddersfield have attended a Black Lives Matter protest.
Mohammed and Sofia Yaqub, of Crosland Moor, travelled to London to join other members of the United Friends and Families Campaign (UFFC) at the demonstration in London on Saturday.
UFFC is a London-based coalition of campaigns by the friends and the families of people who have died in police custody, prisons and psychiatric hospitals. The aim of the coalition is to prevent such deaths from occurring.
Mr and Mrs Yaqub’s son Yassar was aged 28 when he was shot dead by a police marksman on the M62 sliproad at Ainley Top in a pre-planned operation on January 2, 2017. They chanted ‘Justice for Yassar’ and held up a banner as they stood in solidarity alongside family members.
Mr Yaqub said: “It just shows that there are many people in a similar position to what we are without justice.
“I feel that the George Floyd situation is making people more aware of police injustices and the shootings and the killings. People are more aware now than ever before. The chief of police in Louisville [Steve Conrad] has just been fired because the officers did not have their body cameras on in a [fatal] shooting.
“Yet Yassar’s was a pre-planned operation and the body cameras were off. How can one be right but not the other?”
Yassar’s family and friends held an event at Hey Lane Cemetery on
May 18 to mark what would have been his 32nd birthday.
After the shooting, police found a fully loaded handgun under Yassar Yaqub’s seat, as well as ammunition, a silencer and multiple mobile phones in other areas of the car. During a high-profile trial last May, the jury was told that Yassar Yaqub was a drug dealer who was conspiring with others to shoot a man. He didn’t have any convictions for drug dealing.
No body camera footage of the shooting was used during the trial.
In December last year, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it had completed its investigation and would be sharing its findings with police and the coroner.
Nearly three-and-a-half years on, no date has been set for the inquest.