Sheku Bayoh did not stamp on a female police officer, an eyewitness has told the inquiry into his death.
Kevin Nelson said the trainee gas fitter was “trying to get away” after punching PC Nicole Short.
Police witnesses have said he then stamped on her back.
Mr Nelson watched the arrest unfold from his flat opposite the scene on Hayfield Road, Kirkcaldy.
He said Mr Bayoh was swinging his arms while moving towards PC Short but after striking her in the head he veered off towards Hendry road.
He said: “He was just throwing punches – arched hooked punches rather than a straightforward jab.
“It was just wild swinging. Both arms were going.”
Officer backed away but did not run
He said: “I’m not a boxing expert but it didn’t look in any controlled way at all.
“(It connected) at the side of her head.
“As I was looking out it would have hit her on, if her back was to me, her left side.
“She was backing off, coming towards me.”
Mr Nelson said the punch caused PC Short to stumble but he could not see how she fell due to his garden hedge.
He said Mr Bayoh then started moving away from the scene.
Sheku restraint likened to rugby scrum
Mr Nelson continued: “Then a policeman just grabbed him, almost tackled him.
“I was watching (Mr Bayoh) swinging and the officer going down.
“I don’t know where he (PC Walker) came from, he just seemed to be there.”
Mr Nelson confirmed that prior to being tackled, he did not see Sheku Bayoh stamp on PC Short.
Nor did he see PC Ashley Tomlinson strike him with a baton.
Mr Nelson moved to his garden gate to observe the arrest.
“I just saw a mound of people on the pavement.
“There seemed to be double the amount of people that I initially thought was there.
“They were trying to restrain him on the ground.”
He added: “It was like a collapsed scrum at the rugby – it just seemed to be arms and legs everywhere.
“Because of everyone that was there, I presumed he (Mr Bayoh) was under them all.
“I couldn’t see him completely, I may have seen the white t-shirt.
“There was lots of shouting – it was quite loud.”
He said Mr Bayoh appeared to be face down on the pavement as officers went to apply leg restraints.
He said: “My memory is the legs were already up – bent at the knees with the feet up.
“Because of the angle of his legs – bent at the knee up so the soles of his shoes were facing up – he must have been face down.
“He must have been because your legs only bend one way.”
Denies Sheku Bayoh was ‘on a mission’
Earlier in the hearing he said Mr Bayoh appeared to be in a “hypnotic trance” before there was an “explosion” in his behaviour and he started hitting out.
He said: “It was like two different people – you had one guy walking along the road oblivious that anything was going on, at one point.
“And all of a sudden, like a switch, a click of someone’s fingers, almost a hypnotic trance type-thing, he just exploded.
“(He was) the complete opposite of what he was walking along the street.”
He was asked about earlier assertations by police Mr Bayoh was walking with a “swagger” and was “on a mission”.
Mr Nelson said he was of the opinion Mr Bayoh was walking briskly due to the “horrible” weather that day.
He said: “He just seemed to be walking along the street.
“The weather was horrible that morning, so he was walking quite briskly – not power walking but he wasn’t dawdling along, just as anyone would walk.
“The fact that he just had a t shirt on in that weather – I would be walking quick as well to go where I was needing to go.”
Stab fears
The inquiry also heard from PC Kayleigh Good, who was a rookie at the time of the incident.
She said that on hearing over the radio her colleague had been injured she feared she had been stabbed.
In a statement read to the inquiry, she said: “After the first emergency button was pressed … I thought something bad had happened.
“I then heard someone else shout over the radio something similar to ‘officer injured’.
“But the thought went through my head that PC Short had been stabbed.
“This was due to a knife being mentioned.
“I felt extremely panicked at the thought of this and various thoughts and emotions were going through my head.”
She said on arrival she was met by a “petrified” PC Short who appeared “winded”.
PC Good stayed with PC Short during the restraint period.
The inquiry before Lord Bracadale continues.
