Reggae star Smiley Culture’s arrest suicide
REGGAE star Smiley Culture stabbed himself to death yesterday after being arrested in a drugs bust.
The 48-year-old asked police if he could make a cup of tea before being taken into custody.Detectives allowed Smiley - real name David Emmanuel - to go and put the kettle on in his kitchen.
But the star - who had a 1984 hit with a song called Police Officer - grabbed a carving knife and stabbed himself in the heart.
Stunned cops found him dying from the self-inflicted wound.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is to probe his death but sources stressed there were no suspicious circumstances.
Smiley - who also had a big hit with Cockney Translation about the struggle of Jamaicans to understand London accents - was already on bail over a £250,000 cocaine seizure before yesterday's 7am raid on his home in Warlingham, Surrey.
One source said: "Smiley must have thought he was going away for a long time and decided he could not handle it.
"While the Old Bill were sitting waiting for their cuppa he took a carving knife and stabbed himself right in the heart with it."
Yesterday's swoop came after two kilos of coke were recovered from a drugs mule who had swallowed them before trying to enter the UK.
Smiley was alleged to have been part of a ring involved in the plot.
A Met spokesman said: "Officers attended an address in Surrey to make an arrest. While they were there an incident occurred when a 48-year-old man died."
