A mum has hit out at police for using a Top Gun gif to congratulate the officers who identified her daughter after she fell 40ft to her death.
Azra Kemal died in July 2020 after falling from the Medway Viaduct on the A21 while she was looking for help after her car broke down and caught fire.
She had called her mum Nevres Kemal just minutes before the incident to tell her she was on her way home from a night with friends, reports Kent Live.
Paramedics had tried to save Azra, with her last words believed to have been ‘please, don’t let me die’, but she passed away from her injuries.
After the tragedy, Kent Police CSI congratulated themselves for identifying Azra ‘within about 90 minutes of being at [the] scene’ in a tweet along with a GIF from the movie Top Gun where characters Maverick and Goose high-five.
The GIF also reads ‘teamwork’.
Her mum said the tweet was ‘horrendous’, as she told Sky News: ‘I could not believe that professional police officers would high-five themselves and pat themselves on the back, on the back of my daughter’s demise.
‘It’s more than insensitive. It’s unacceptable. What is the mindset of people investigating crimes on our behalf?’
A second tweet was shared praising the police drone work with the hashtag ‘crackingbitofkit’.
Reports revealed Azra had fallen through a 10ft void between two carriageways after she had climbed over the barriers in the dark while thinking there was a central reservation in between.
The family think the investigation was wrapped up too quickly.
Sky News reports the initial suspect, the man Azra was travelling with, was released with no further action and the investigation closed before the end of its first day.
Kate Ellis, from the Centre for Women’s Justice, who is supporting the family, said: “It strikes me that a murder investigation being opened and closed within 24 hours is not an adequate investigation.
‘I think it’s shocking that with an investigation ongoing, and in fact within a few hours of Nevres having been informed of her daughter’s death, the police would brag about the expediency of their investigation or the impressiveness of their kit.’
Kent Police did a standard post-mortem examination, concluding that what happened to Azra was not suspicious.
An independent review of the investigation by Essex Police found that it ‘may have been prudent’ to release the suspect under investigation rather than close the case.
The review supported the idea of conducting a forensic post-mortem examination, stating: ‘The reason for this would be to capture a forensic level of detail at post-mortem which could assist in proving or disproving matters that were raised at a later time.’
It added that ‘it would have avoided unanswered questions, by being able to negate any third-party involvement’.
The mum added: ‘Do the job you are supposed to do. Look at the information, look at the leads, look at the timelines, look at the interviews, go back to the witnesses, because no one saw Azra die.
‘There should be a uniform process. If there is a death and there’s no witnesses to a death, everybody should have that right to a forensic autopsy.’
Kent Police said its investigation was ‘full and thorough’.
A spokesperson told Sky News: ‘Officers determined there were no suspicious circumstances, and a man who had initially been arrested in connection with the incident was released without charge.
‘A police investigation into the circumstances then continued for several months to assist an inquest by the coroner. The subsequent inquest into the death returned a verdict of misadventure.
‘A complaint about the quality of the investigation was made to Kent Police in November 2020. This complaint was sent to an independent force to review, which concluded the service provided by Kent Police had been acceptable.
‘In February 2022, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) received a request to carry out a further investigation into the complaint.
‘In response, the IOPC concluded that the investigation into the complaint had been ‘reasonable and proportionate’ and that an acceptable service had been provided in respect of the criminal investigation into the woman’s death.
‘A request to review the complaint was not upheld.’
Following a successful appeal through a judicial review, part of the IOPC investigation has been reopened. The tweets have since been removed, and the complaint is being reviewed by an independent police force.
