Ex-police chief explains why 'unprecedented' details released about Liverpool crash driver

Dal Babu, former Chief Superintendent at the e, claimed that Merseyside Police released "unprecedented" details about the Liverpool car crash suspect. Shortly after the suspect was brought in for questioning, their age, ethnicity and race was announced to the public.

The same police force did not provide the same information in the immediate aftermath of the in July 2024, when three girls were murdered. But Dabu claims that Merseyside Police have learned from previous incidents and took preventive action to stop misinformation from spreading online.

He told BBC 5 Live: "I think [releasing the suspect's ethnicity in this case] was to dampen down some of the speculation from the far right, that continues on X even as we speak, that this was a Muslim extremist."

Dabu described the announcement as "remarkably striking" as police will typically not release this kind of information because they will be worried about prejudicing any future trial. But the former police chief claimed that "they need to balance that against the potential of public disorder".

Merseyside Police, in the hours that followed the crash into a crowd gathered to celebrate Liverpool Football Club's trophy parade, , stressing that the person is a "white male" and the incident is not being treated as terror-related.

A few hours after the "unprecedented" information was released, an extensive news conference was held, during which police ruled out terrorism as a motive. They appealed for videos not to be shared online and for people not to speculate.

Liverpool City Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram led praise of the police's early actions, telling Sky News: "There was a lot of footage that was posted in the immediacy of what has happened, literally within minutes.

"And of course, that sets a lot of false narratives. And we all know that speculation and social media are a wildfire of different vantages, and some of it is for nefarious reasons. So it was right that the police reacted as quickly as they did to dampen down some of the types of posts that we were witnessing."

Police also confirmed that 27 football fans, including four children, were rushed to hospital by ambulance. Three adults and one child had to be dragged out from underneath the suspect's car by fire services, who lifted the vehicle up and off them.

An additional 20 patients were treated at the scene for minor injuries, with Mayor Rotherham confirming the following morning that .

He added that the police will release a further statement "when the time is right" which will include how the car ended up on Water Street "when vehicles shouldn't have been in that area at all".