Police 'joked' in YouTube clip about rapper's death in north London, claims grieving mum

• Tap above to watch video report by Ronke Phillips

A grieving mother claimed police appeared to "joke" about her son's death in a clip she unexpectedly watched on YouTube.

Craig Small, 32, known as Smallz, was standing outside a fast food restaurant in Wembley when a gunman ran towards him and opened fire.

The way police dealt with the deadly attack in July 2019 left Craig's mum feeling angry and the investigation into the actions of officers was prolonging her agony.

Carol Campbell recalled the moment she first saw the unedited video appear on YouTube.

"We watch a lot of the YouTube videos, so it just automatically came up and he [Craig] popped up on the screen.

"And I said isn’t that Craig? I saw the guy come up to him and what he did to my son. There was no filter it was just raw. It wasn't it wasn't edited or anything."

Carol said the YouTube video appeared to have been filmed in a police station and she could hear police radios in the background.

"While they were all watching it, someone took out their phone, recorded it and put it out on social media," Carol explained.

She said police appeared to laugh and acted as if her son's death was a "joke".

In a statement, police said the video was referred to the police watchdog and the Met is investigating officers for misconduct and gross misconduct.

Following an Old Bailey retrial, Courtney Ellis was found guilty of murder and attempted murder and jailed for at least 35 years.

Ellis was also convicted of perverting the course of justice alongside Christopher Kyei who was jailed for four-and-a-half years.

The defendants were said to be associated with a gang that operated in north-west London.

Craig was not a gang member but associated with members of two rival gangs and found himself a target for retaliation.

He often spoke to his mum about violence and his concerns about disputes between rival gangs.

Carol said after the difficult weeks of sitting through the court case she now faced the added burden of waiting for the outcome of the police investigation.

She added: "My son was very important to us, to the whole family.

"My son was my life and the way they took my son, it wasn't right. I'm living that every day.

"We just finished the court case, so I'm still going through it and I've still got to go through this in this situation with the police as well.

"So it's hard. It's very hard. The knock on effect that it's had on my health is very hard.

"Craig was he was trying to stop all this street negativity that's going on. He would speak up for someone and say, 'no you guys stop'. It is just the type of son he was.

Carol spoke of how her son loved music first as a rapper before turning to R&B and wanted to be a talent scout.

She added: "We want to enjoy what life we had with him, not thinking about the sorrow of what happened to him.

"And we've got all this going on.

"That's what just making me more focused on what happened to him than on the good times that we had with him."

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