The second of two brothers caught on camera punching and kicking police officers at Manchester Airport today claimed he struck out because he thought one of them was ‘choking’ his brother.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, was filmed hitting two policewomen and a male officer who were trying to detain him for headbutting a passenger at a Starbucks café minutes earlier.
His brother Muhammad Amaad, 26, was also captured raining punches on the male officer, PC Zachary Marsden, who was armed.
Giving evidence last week, Amaaz claimed that when he was ‘grabbed’ by PC Marsden at a car park pay station he hadn’t realised he was a police officer.
He said he resisted arrest even when he saw his police uniform because he feared PC Marsden was ‘going to batter me to the point where I’m dead.’
‘It just felt like I was fighting for my life,’ he added.
Today it was his older brother’s turn to go into the witness box at Liverpool Crown Court.
Amaad, a former KFC assistant manager, told jurors that three police officers arrived as they were paying for parking following the headbutt.
Muhammad Amaad, 26, arriving at Liverpool Crown Court where he today told a jury he fought back against an armed policeman because he thought he was ‘choking’ his brother, Mohammed Fahir Amaaz (pictured last week)
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, arriving at Liverpool Crown Court last week before he told a jury he fought back as an armed officer tried to arrest him because he feared he planned to ‘batter me to the point where I was dead’
Muhammad Amaad, 26, (left) and his brother Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, (right) arriving for their trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday either side of their solicitor, Aamer Anwar
Asked by his barrister Chloe Gardner if he immediately saw they were police, he replied: ‘Yeah.’
Amaad said the officers ‘grabbed’ his brother without announcing who they were or what they wanted and began forcing him towards the ticket machine.
‘I didn’t understand the need for the aggression,’ he said.
Amaad said he saw an officer – who he later learnt was PC Marsden – ‘grab’ his brother by the neck, and responded by saying: ‘Easy, easy, easy.’
‘I was trying to de-escalate the situation,’ he told the jury.
Amaad said at this point he wrongly thought PC Marsden had both hands around his brother’s neck.
‘I thought he was choking him,’ he said.
Amaad said he put his arm on the officer’s arm and said: ‘What are you holding his neck for? ‘There’s no need for it’.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz (in blue) was seen to throw 10 punches at the officers during the violence, while his brother – Muhammad Amaad (far left), 26, who is also on trial – threw six
Constable Lydia Ward, who jurors heard is heavily pregnant, previously told of being ‘terrified’ after coming under attack from Amaaz – as footage of her injuries was was shown to a court
Denying pushing the officer, he added: ‘I just wanted his hand off his neck.’
Amaad said he then felt a ‘bang’ to the face and put his hands out.
Saying he felt ‘shocked’ and ‘stunned’, he said: ‘I genuinely didn’t know what hit me, I was caught by surprise.
‘I didn’t know who was punching me, my eyes were closed.’
Amaad said he and PC Marsden ‘sort of fell over onto the chair’ and he could feel ‘punches and holding and grabbing’.
‘I had to defend myself.’
Amaad said the incident happened ‘really quick’ and he felt ‘disorientated’.
‘I punched out because I was being punched,’ he said.
Police bodyworn camera footage shown to the court shows PC Ward being comforted by PC Ellie Cook
Amaad said when he felt the ‘pulling and pushing’ stop he ‘stepped up’ and saw PC Marsden pointing what he later learnt was his Taser at him.
‘I just felt a sharp pain hit my chest,’ he said.
Amaad said his legs immediately felt ‘weak’ and he fell backwards into the seats.
At that point he saw the officer had a firearm and feared he was going to be shot, so put his hands behind his head.
‘I just thought to myself “I’m not dying today”,’ he said.
‘I’ve been punched, Tasered, I’m not going to die today.’
Questioned by Ms Gardner he said he ‘considered’ that PC Marsden might shoot him, Amaad said he did.
Amaad said he then saw his brother ‘flat’ and ‘stiff’ on the ground.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz is seen arriving at Liverpool Crown Court at the start of his trial
Amaaz’s brother Muhammad Amaad, 26, is also on trial over the alleged attack at Manchester Airport (he is seen arriving at Liverpool Crown Court on June 30)
Jurors have been shown CCTV and bodycam footage in which Amaaz is Tasered after punching firearms officer PC Ellie Cook and PC Lydia Ward – who was unarmed – in the face.
PC Marsden is then seen to kick Amaaz in the head as he lies on the ground.
Today Amaad said he did not see PC Marsden kick his brother in the head because their elderly mother was in the way.
Amaad said he was shouting out ‘Mum’ and was also worried about his young nephew.
‘I didn’t want her to be next. I didn’t want the officers to start on my mum.’
He denied reaching for PC Marsden’s firearm.
Amaad said PC Marsden was shouting ‘Get down!’ so he put his hands back behind his head and got to his knees.
He said he then felt a kick to his leg and stomach area and then a ‘smack, smack’ to the back of his head.
Amaad felt someone jump on his back and looking sideways heard an officer telling him: ‘If you move I’m going to smash your f****** face in’.
As he was under arrest, Amaad said he told officers: ‘I’m not resisting.’
‘I was terrified,’ he said.
At that point he saw his mother’s face was bleeding and his nephew crying.
Asked again by Ms Gardner why he initially struck out at PC Marsden at the pay station, Ammad said: ‘At that point I was trying to make him stop and defend myself.’
After the incident Amaad was left with marks to his chest, and cuts to his head, neck and mouth.
At the police station he felt ‘terrified’ and ‘petrified’.
‘I’d never been in a police station in my life,’ he said.
‘I didn’t know what was going to happen or what to do.’
When he gave evidence earlier in the trial, PC Marsden told jurors that as he attempted to gain control of Amaaz in order to arrest him, he felt an ‘immense weight’ pressing on him from behind.
He later realised this was Amaaz’s brother Amaad.
His ‘initial fear’ was that ‘someone is trying to get to my gun’, a loaded Glock semi-automatic, out of its holster, he said.
He said Amaad – who was ‘taller and larger build than me’ – then grabbed his body armour, dragged him to the bench and subjected him to ‘blows from all directions’.
Pc Marsden said he had been assaulted on duty multiple times but could ‘confidently’ say the punches were ‘the hardest I’ve ever felt in my life’.
Asked today about the incident during which the airline passenger was headbutted by his brother, Amaad insisted it had been in self-defence.
He said they had gone to meet their elderly mother from a flight, only for her to tell them a fellow passenger had been calling her a ‘P*** b*tch’ throughout the journey.
Amaad said as they were walking through the arrivals hall she pointed out the passenger, Abdulkareem Ismaeil.
He said his brother ‘calmly’ asked Mr Ismaeil to explain but that the passenger said the racial abuse had been aimed at a ‘little girl’ sitting nearby.
Amaad said that as his brother asked for an apology, Mr Ismaeil threatened to ‘smash’ his brother, saying ‘You don’t know who I am’ and ‘I’ll kill you.’
Describing the headbutt, Amaad said his brother ‘defends himself’ because Mr Ismaeil was ‘in his face’.
Neither brother has ever been arrested, cautioned or convicted, the trial has heard.
Amaaz denies assault by beating, two charges of assault causing actual bodily harm, and a charge of assault by beating of a police officer acting as an emergency worker.
Amaad denies one charge of assault causing actual bodily harm relating to PC Marsden.
The trial continues.
