The Guardian's dossier also includes a sequence of photographs, taken by three different people, showing the aftermath of the attack, as well as witness statements from people in the area at the time. A number of witnesses provided time and date-stamped photographs that substantiate their accounts. Some said they saw police officers attack Tomlinson. Witnesses say prior to the moment captured on video, he had already been hit with batons and thrown to the floor by police who blocked his route home.
One witness, the photographer Anna Branthwaite, described how in the minutes before the video captures him, she saw Tomlinson walking towards Cornhill Street. "A riot police officer had already grabbed him and was pushing him. It wasn't just pushing him – he'd rushed him. He went to the floor and he did actually roll. That was quite noticeable. It was the force of the impact. He bounced on the floor. It was a very forceful knocking-down from behind. The officer hit him twice with a baton when he was lying on the floor.
"So it wasn't just that the officer had pushed him – it became an assault. And then the officer picked him up from the back, continued to walk or charge with him, and threw him. He was running and stumbling. He didn't turn and confront the officer or anything like that."
The witness accounts contradict the official version of events given by police.
