UPDATE: |’Police should have brought him home but they took him to Screwfix – they killed my son’ News

A 21-year-old man took his own life five days after being arrested

A mum insists police ‘killed her son’ after the 21-year-old took his own life five days after being arrested.

An inquest heard how Mohammed ‘Safwan’ Rahman was arrested on November 18, 2023, before being dropped off by police at the Screwfix store where he worked following his release.

Instead of returning home, Safwan travelled to Scotland to visit a friend, and was reported to officers as a missing person.

Safwan headed back south to Stoke-on-Trent on November 23, 2023, when he was pulled over by police.

He parked his car at Trentham Gardens, where the vehicle burst into flames, before Safwan stepped out onto the road and was hit by a lorry.

His family believe Staffordshire Police missed two opportunities to bring him to his home in Lightwood, Stoke-on-Trent Live reports.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) was called in to investigate following the tragedy, with the family having lodged an official complaint.

They now hope to open an orphanage in Bangladesh in Safwan’s memory.

His mum told the inquest: “Our son was brought up with so much love. They should have brought him home but they took him to Screwfix. They killed my son.”

The inquest heard Safwan – whose life changed following a 2023 car crash – was in his final year studying neuroscience and biochemistry at Keele University.

He was the first person in his family of doctors and nurses to be arrested when police apprehended him in the days before his death. Staffordshire Police did not release details of the arrest.

Safwan’s dad told the inquest: “He changed after the crash. The police said he was lucky to escape with minor injuries because it was a huge crash and totally wrote the car off.

“Before that all he could think of was cars and living the high life so to speak, something definitely happened after that, I think he realised he had a lucky escape but it did change him.

“I think he thought he brought shame on the family because we’re very respected in the community, we’re all highly educated, we’re all doctors and nurses, and the family name is important, and he was the first person in our family that was going to get a criminal record.

“He wanted to be a doctor and was going to do a medicine course after he’d completed this one, but I think he realised he wouldn’t get into medicine with a criminal record.”

North Staffordshire area coroner Daniel Howe delivered a suicide verdict. He passed away on November 23, 2023.

He said: “Mohammed Safwan Rahman was a young man working towards his future plans of becoming a doctor. He had a history of suicidal thoughts after a previous episode in 2017. He had a road traffic collision about eight months before his passing.

“In November, 2023 he was arrested and he didn’t return home, he was reported going up north to Scotland, and he was reported missing. He was stopped by police officers and it was expressed in a police statement that Safwan had been clearing his head and planning to go home. In hindsight, if he’d been detained or arrested then he wouldn’t have died when he did, but I cannot find his death was contributed to by the omissions of those officers.

“He parked his car at Trentham Gardens for approximately three hours until the fire appeared to have started. This prompted him to leave his car and head to the treeline. He is seen by the A34. I find that this was a deliberate act. In that moment against a background of his future, his family, and police involvement, I can conclude Safwan’s cause of death.

“The medical cause of death was one of multi-traumatic injuries. My short-form conclusion, given the evidence I’ve heard and seen, I’m satisfied that entering the carriageway in front of the HGV was a deliberate act and I conclude this as suicide.”