Masked youths launch flares as balloon launch for lifeless A66 joyrider is dubbed a ‘mockery’
Youths wearing masks set off flares and released balloons to honour one of the five joyriders who was killed in the horror A66 crash that also left two police officers dead.
Gathering on South Bank field in Middlesbrough, only a few hundred yards from where the crash took place, a group of masked youths paid tribute.
It comes after a Volkswagen Passat crashed into a police vehicle while driving in the wrong direction on the A66, killing PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38. The five young men in the Passat, who also died, were named as Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Theo Rae, 17, Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Jacob Matusiak, 23, and Makai Saddington, 18. Four of the men had criminal records, it has been reported.
The sky was lit up with orange smoke(Image: North News & Pictures Ltd)
The tribute on South Bank field this evening was for Matusiak. It started as a balloon release to commemorate his death, but grew to a crowd of 200 people who launched orange flares into the sky, the Sun reports.
Just after 5pm, hundreds of orange balloons – chosen because it was his favourite colour – were released into the sky.
One female attendee in her 20s told the Sun: “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.
Some have described the gathering as ‘tone deaf’ (Image: North News & Pictures Ltd)
“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.”
One resident, however, claimed: “This is nothing but a mockery of the lives of those two policemen.
“I’ve watched them walking down there drinking and smoking and razzing about on their motorbikes. There’s nothing here to celebrate.”
Twelve people aged between 19 and 61, have been arrested by officers investigating the events leading up to the crash on the A66 which left Pc Matthew Blades and Pc Tom Clough dead, Cleveland Police have confirmed.
The arrests, which have seen nine men and three women arrested, are over the A66 investigation and are suspected of “participating in the activities of an organised crime group”.
Police officers at the scene of the fatal crash(Image: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)
PCs Tom Clough and Matthew Blades died when a Volkswagen Passat being driven the wrong way along the A66 collided with their police vehicle at 3.39am on Saturday morning. The five men in the Passat were also pronounced dead at the scene.
Cleveland Police had received two reports of vehicles being driven dangerously on Saturday morning – the Passat and a Volvo XC60, which are believed to have been linked.
The Volvo was seen crashing into properties in the area, and both vehicles were operating with cloned number plates to try and avoid detection.
