NSW: Police deserve what they get for killing my son: mother

AAP General News (Australia)
02-16-2004
NSW: Police deserve what they get for killing my son: mother

EDS:(Attention to language in second last par).



SYDNEY, Feb 16 AAP - The mother of the 17-year-old boy whose death sparked a violent
riot in Sydney today said police deserved all they got for killing her son.

Residents rioted in Redfern overnight, injuring 50 police as they threw bricks, bottles
and petrol bombs and set fire to Redfern railway station.

The riot erupted following the death in nearby Waterloo early yesterday of 17-year-old
Thomas Hickey.

The teenager was impaled on a metal fence after falling from his bicycle on Saturday,
but members of the community have blamed police for the death, alleging officers had been
pursuing him.

Police have denied the accusation.

The teenager's mother Gail Hickey said her son's friends became "wild" after his death
and began throwing things at police in retribution.

She claimed police had spent yesterday "driving around ... intimidating us".

"My son's friends got wild and that, so they started throwing things at them (police
officers). They deserve all they get," Ms Hickey told ABC radio's AM program.

"I was terrified and that, wild and that. I wanted to go to the police station and
smash the police station up. That's how wild I was.

"A 17-year-old boy coming around to play with his mother ... and these dogs here ...

killing my son. These dogs up here done it. The police fucking killed my son.

"They denied it. (They said) they never done it."

AAP sd/tma

KEYWORD: IMPALED RIOT MOTHER

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.