Police 'did all they could' to save teenager who drowned in east London canal

'Beautiful' teenager: Jack Susianta died after a police chase
Facebook
Laura Proto21 April 2016

An inspector who was in charge of police at the east London canal where a teenager downed has insisted he was right not to ask officers to enter the water.

Jack Susianta, 17, from Hackney, died after getting into the canal at Walthamstow Marshes in July last year while he was fleeing from police.

Acting inspector James Reynolds told Jack’s inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court that the Metropolitan Police “does not expect” people to jump in to the water but “does expect them to do a dynamic assessment”.

Of the response of the police officers who were at the scene, he said: "I was satisfied they were doing all they could do."

He said the officers "appreciated the urgency" and were communicating in a "calm manner" to Jack, who had suffered a psychotic episode, smashed through a window at his family home and fled in just a T-shirt, boxer shorts and socks.

The teenager's mental state also meant he feared the police were not the real police, the jury previously heard.

Insp Reynolds, who was in charge at the scene, had declared Jack a high-risk missing person and believed there were substantial grounds to fear he could come to harm.

After he got into the canal, officers threw 82ft (25m) life ropes to Jack as he became submerged, but the teenager did not grab them.

Coroner Mary Hassell asked Insp Reynolds if he felt he made the right decision in not asking while he was in the car en route to the scene whether anyone was a strong swimmer.

He said: "Yes, the rationale for me is that it felt like there was an effective rescue plan in place and they were carrying out a dynamic risk assessment."

He described the water as "dismal" and "really oily, dark and you could not see below the surface".

Within minutes of arriving at the scene a police officer had asked to go into the water. Insp Reynolds said that during this "quite frantic" stage he had not stopped anyone from going into the water.

Regarding the police officer's request to go into the canal, Insp Reynolds said: "I could not give that authorisation - it is for you to make a risk assessment."

The coroner said one interpretation of that comment is that he was not taking responsibility and was stepping back from the situation.

Insp Reynolds replied: "I think I answered that in the best way that I can. I answered in a way that people [police officers] could understand."

Asked if in retrospect he would have done anything different, Insp Reynolds said: "I did have sleepless nights. I brood about it a lot - it is nothing compared to what Jack's mum has suffered though - but looking back at it, no, I believe not."

He also told the inquest he was confident of his ability to do a good job, saying he was well trained and had been in frontline policing throughout his career.

The inquest was adjourned until Monday.

Additional reporting by Press Association.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in