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I'll see you tomorrow if I am still living and breathing...
Kiran Randhawa, Martin Bentham and Danny Brierley08.04.09
IAN Tomlinson told his friends “see you tomorrow morning if I'm still living and breathing” just minutes before he collapsed and died.
The 47-year-old Millwall fan made his tragic quip as he left for home at around 7pm after spending the day with his friend Barry Smith, helping to sell the Evening Standard from a news stand at Monument Station.
Less than half an hour later he lay dying in the street from a heart attack after clashing with police in an incident which has now led to calls for a criminal prosecution.
Today, Mr Smith, who had known Mr Tomlinson for 26 years, told tearfully how his friend, although an alcoholic, had not had a drink on the day and described him as calm and unaggressive.
“Ian was always there with me, from the minute I started work until the end of the day.
“He had a drink problem but that day he was completely sober and was looking forward to starting work again the next day,” he said.
“At 7pm, I had run out of papers so I told him to go home. His last words to me were see you tomorrow Barry, if I'm still living and breathing'. It tears me apart thinking about that now.”
Mr Tomlinson set off, apparently on his way home to the hostel where he lived in Lindsey Street in Smithfield, heading along King William Street.
Several streets that he sought to use were blocked off so he took a route through the heart of the City where the G20 demonstration was continuing.
At around 7.10pm, he was seen first in Cornhill and then in Royal Exchange Passage by several witnesses who describe seeing two different assaults.
The first was seen by a woman, who today said Mr Tomlinson was assaulted by police as around 20 officers, including some in riot gear, moved down Cornhill to form a line to control the G20 protests.
She said Mr Tomlinson did not confront any of the officers at any stage.
Soon after, the police appear to have clashed with Mr Tomlinson again in an incident seen by an unnamed fund manager from New York, whose video footage of the encounter has led to today's calls for a criminal prosecution.
“I saw him wandering around,” the fund manager said. “He was just taking a look.
“He just got too close to the police line. It was horrible. I didn't put two and two together. Then I looked at the footage again and thought my God, it's the man they pushed to the ground'. It must be him who collapsed.”
Kezia Rolfe, 27, an NGO researcher from east London, has also reported seeing this second incident. She failed to see the actual push by the police officer or any use of the baton against the news vendor, but her account appears to tally roughly with what happened in the video footage.
“I saw a man approaching the police line from my right,” she said. “He did not appear drunk — he was walking normally. I saw him suddenly fall back as though flung down by force. It was as though he had been spun. He fell and hit the top of his head hard. I was shocked. He lay on the ground for around 30 seconds without moving before a protester helped him up.”
Mr Tomlinson and the police then appear to have separated, leaving him to walk further down Cornhill where he collapsed after suffering an apparent heart attack.
Daniel McPhee, 24, a social support worker from Kingston, witnessed these final moments and said he had seen no violence displayed towards the news vendor before he fell to the ground.
“I looked over to my left and there was a man lying in the street. Someone shouted he fell down, over there', as if to say that he fell down before somehow.” Natalie Langford, 21, a student from east London, saw Mr Tomlinson as she took part in a sit down protest, although she too saw no evidence of violence towards him immediately prior to his collapse. “Police came in and began hitting people with batons,” she said. “My friend got hit quite badly. It was a minute after that we saw [Mr Tomlinson] stumbling about. He seemed really disorientated and stumbling. Then he collapsed.”
Callum Holden-Cooper, 20, added: “He came from the direction of the police and he just collapsed.
“He didn't have any blood on his face. He seemed quite out of it. I saw he was breathing. Four riot police and two medics came around the guy who collapsed.”
A medical student called Lucy, who was one of the last people to speak to Mr Tomlinson, said: “He was quite unsteady on his feet and ran into the edge of the doorway. I asked him if he was okay and he was laughing and smiling. I put him into the recovery position and he quite quickly stopped moving.”
She said after calling an ambulance she was told to put him on his back but police charged the crowd so she stood at the end of his feet trying to protect him.
She said the police tried to move her away and refused requests to speak to the ambulance operator on another bystander's mobile.
