A throng of balaclava-clad youths set off flares and fireworks on Monday afternoon to remember the five A66 ‘joyriders’ who died when they smashed into a police car.
The chaos was in stark contrast to a silent prayer vigil hosted in a church to honour PC Tom Clough and PC Matthew Blades, who also tragically died in the crash.
Friends and family of Jakub Matusiak, 23, decided to gather in a field in South Bank, Middlesborough, just yards from Saturday’s catastrophic collision caused by the gang hurtling the wrong way down the dual carriageway.
What began as a balloon release descended into a confusion of smoke and noise when attendees lit up the sky with smoke bombs and rockets.
A gang of around 20 masked youths on motorbikes and quad bikes roared around the field to honour Matusiak, who himself had convictions for motoring offences.
Footage shows dozens of flares being held aloft, filling the field with dense smoke, as bikes rev their engines and blare their horns in the background.
One female attendee in her 20s was indignant at the tone of the coverage of the deaths of the youths.
She said: ‘Jakub was a lovely, caring lad and he’s somebody’s son and somebody’s brother, he’s not some scumbag who should just be written off and forgotten.
A group of bikers revved around the field and set off dozens of flares in memory of Jakub Matusiak
Hundreds of people gathered in a field in South Bank, near Middlesbrough, for the memorial
The event began as a simple balloon release, but became rowdier as fireworks and flares were set off
Family and friends of Matusiak, 23, decided to gather on the South Bank Back Field for a balloon release today
‘It was an accident that those police officers died, they weren’t trying to kill anyone and they lost their own lives but they’ve just been written off as if they don’t matter.
‘The number of people who have come out for Jakub today should show you that they do matter, they were loved and they will be missed.’
The gathering took place on South Bank back field, only a few hundred yards from where the collision took place on the A66, ending seven lives.
Cleveland Police attended but kept a low-key presence, a patrol car from the Matrix team – which the two constables worked in – was parked 500 yards away alongside a police van.
Not all the residents of the surrounding streets chose to attend.
Looking at the police officers standing beside their vehicles, a 58-year-old grandmother said: ‘What must they be thinking right now? This is nothing but a mockery of the lives of those two policemen.
‘I’ve watched them walking down there drinking and smoking weed and razzing about on their motorbikes. There’s nothing here to celebrate.’
The nearby St John the Evangelist Church opened its doors for people from the community to pay their respects, but was largely untroubled by visitors on their way to the field.
However, Redcar’s Labour MP Anna Turley attended. She said: ‘I thought it was really important to come together. I was really pleased that the church has opened themselves up for the community to come together, because it’s such a devastating incident.
The vigil to remember the two constables who lost their lives was a much more sober affair
At the same time, another balloon release will be held in Middlesbrough for Cole Worthy, 17, another of those killed
‘The whole community here is reeling, and we’ve lost lives, particularly those lives of brave police officers who are out in action to keep us safe. It’s a tragic incident.
‘The whole community, I think, needed a space to come to express that grief, to pay a tribute, particularly to those officers, and have somewhere to think and reflect and try to come to terms with the terrible incident we’ve seen on the A66.
‘There’s a reason the police were out that night – to keep us safe and to protect us. I know more information will come out over the coming days, as the IOPC continue their report, but I think it just highlights the gravity of some of the issues we’ve been facing in this area for some time now.
‘It’s horrendous that two officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. We just want to take the time to reflect on their lives, pay tribute to them, give our thanks for their service and bravery.’
Another balloon release was scheduled at the same time in Middlesbrough for Cole Worthy, 17, another of those killed.
Matusiak, Worthy and their friends Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and Michael Robert Cahill, 23, died in a catastrophic head-on collision in Teesside early on Saturday morning.
The youngsters were driving the wrong way down the A66 when they struck PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, who were travelling in an unmarked response vehicle.
Another police car had been pursuing them before calling off the chase. Just ten seconds later, the VW struck PCs Blades and Clough, who had not been involved in the pursuit.
PC Matthew Blades, a father of two, was killed when his police vehicle was struck head-on by a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way down the A66 near Middlesbrough
PC Tom Clough also died in the crash, which occurred around 10 seconds after a police pursuit of the Volkswagen had been called off.
In the months leading up to the crash, Saddington had posted a string of TikTok clips that appeared to show him taking part in police chases. He had also been awaiting trial for racially abusing and assaulting police officers.
Twelve people have now been arrested by police probing the crash.
Four of the youngsters killed in the VW had extensive criminal records, including convictions for drug offences, assault and robbery.
Friends and family have paid tribute to Matusiak, with his sister describing him on social media as ‘my best friend, always and forever’.
A family friend, Jodie Stephenson, also paid tribute, writing: ‘I’ll miss the ADHD and the headaches you caused us, the late-night phone calls to pick you up quickly and walking into Jimmy’s to find you flat out on the bed.
‘You always came here when the s*** had hit the fan and that was quite often.’
In May this year, Matusiak posted a video on social media which appeared to show him driving a Volvo recklessly through a Middlesbrough housing estate. At one point in the video, he was seen leaving the road and driving across a grassy area.
Meanwhile, the families of the two officers have paid moving tributes to the heroes, and a GoFundMe appeal launched by Cleveland Police Federation to support them had raised more than £500,000 by this morning.
Makai Saddington, one of the five killed in the Volkswagen, posted videos on TikTok of him being chased by police and was awaiting trial for racially abusing and assaulting officers
Close friends Theo Rae (left) and Cole Robert Worthy both died in the crash on Saturday
Michael Robert Cahill was one of the five in the VW
The federation said its officers had ‘paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty’ and left behind ‘heartbroken loved ones’. It added that the funds raised would be split equally between the families.
PC Blades’ wife described him as ‘our superhero’ and said: ‘He gave his life in the line of duty, protecting and serving others with courage, dedication and selflessness.’
Former soldier PC Clough, 38, was described by his family as ‘our hero’ who was ‘always driven by a sense of public service’.
Cleveland Police said today that nine men and three women, aged between 19 and 61, have now been arrested on suspicion of offences ranging from possession of a firearm to participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
Cleveland Police received several reports of the Volkswagen Passat being driven dangerously on Saturday. Separate reports involved a second car, a Volvo XC60, which was seen ramming properties in the Middlesbrough area.
Both vehicles were operating with cloned number plates to avoid detection, but were identified through the force’s automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system.
Police said there is no evidence to indicate that filming of the activities that took place on Friday night and Saturday morning was carried out for the purposes of TikTok.
The Middlesbrough crash came less than a week after an incident in Co Kildare, Ireland, when five teenagers died in a head-on crash while driving the wrong way down the M9.
A family in the other car, comprising three women and a seven-year-old boy, were left seriously injured in the crash while travelling to the airport to begin a holiday, according to reports.
At least three of the teenagers had boasted online about driving the wrong way down motorways to evade police.
Speaking in Kyiv on Monday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the Government had urged TikTok and other platforms to remove videos which glorify dangerous driving.
Mr Burnham said those who share such videos are ‘doing something that’s truly reprehensible’.
A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘The glorification of dangerous driving for clips and entertainment is utterly disgraceful and that is why we have raised the issue of this appalling content with social media companies since the tragedy.’
