Nine people have died in a matter of days, homes have reportedly been deliberately rammed, 17 people have been arrested during an organised crime investigation and two men are being questioned on suspicion of murder following a fatal house fire. Now another property has been hit by a vehicle. So what exactly is happening on Teesside?
Over the past few days, Middlesbrough and neighbouring communities have become the focus of a rapidly expanding series of police investigations.
Seven people died in a horrific collision on the A66 after a Volkswagen Passat travelled the wrong way along the dual carriageway and struck a police vehicle.
Before that crash, police say properties had been deliberately rammed by another vehicle and that the Passat was associated with those incidents.
Seventeen people have since been arrested as Cleveland Police investigates what it describes as criminality with “significant links to serious and organised criminal activity”. The National Crime Agency and North East Regional Organised Crime Unit have been assisting.
Then, on Wednesday morning, two more people – including a seven-year-old girl – died in a house fire in nearby Grangetown. Police launched a murder investigation and arrested two men.
In the early hours of Thursday, police were called to another incident in South Bank after a vehicle repeatedly crashed into a wall outside an empty property.
Crucially, Cleveland Police has not said that every one of these incidents is connected.
But neither is it treating the possibility lightly.
Following the Grangetown fire, police said they were keeping an open mind and “cannot rule out any links to wider organised crime at this time.” In relation to Thursday’s incident, police again stressed that no such link has yet been established.
That leaves one obvious question.
What Is Happening In Middlesbrough?
The answer, at this stage, is complicated.
Some of the events are demonstrably connected.
Others may be.
And some may ultimately prove to have nothing to do with each other at all.
Here is what we actually know.
Timeline: How The Events Have Unfolded
Late July – Shootings In Grangetown And South Bank
The current violence did not emerge in a vacuum.
In late July, Cleveland Police investigated two shootings in Grangetown and South Bank.
By 27 July, police said 12 people had been arrested in connection with the firearms incidents.
Those shootings are important background because they demonstrate that officers were already dealing with serious firearms-related criminality in the same relatively small area.
However, there is currently no public confirmation that those shootings are connected to the A66 crash, the house rammings or the fatal Grangetown fire.
They should therefore be treated as context, not as a proven first chapter of the same case.
Saturday 22 August – Properties Reportedly Rammed
In the early hours of Saturday morning, Cleveland Police received several reports of two vehicles being driven dangerously.
Police say a Volvo XC60 was witnessed ramming properties in the Middlesbrough area.
A Volkswagen Passat was believed to be associated with the activities of the Volvo.
Both vehicles were allegedly using cloned number plates in an apparent attempt to avoid detection. The Volvo was later recovered in Middlesbrough.
One of the properties targeted was, according to ITV News, the home of the father of 17-year-old Cole Worthy.
Worthy later travelled in the Passat involved in the fatal A66 collision. There is no suggestion that his father was involved in criminal activity.
That is one of the clearest publicly established links between the activity before the crash and at least one of the people who later died.
What police have not yet publicly explained is why the properties were targeted.
The Passat Is Pursued
The Independent Office for Police Conduct has independently examined some of the events leading up to the crash.
It says Cleveland Police had received intelligence regarding numerous incidents linked to the Volkswagen Passat.
An armed response vehicle later sighted the car and began a pursuit.
According to footage reviewed by the IOPC, the pursuit lasted just under seven minutes.
The Passat Enters The A66 The Wrong Way
The Passat then entered the A66 at South Bank against the flow of traffic.
At that point, the pursuing officers aborted the chase and remained on the correct side of the carriageway.
Approximately ten seconds later, the Passat collided head-on with a different Cleveland Police vehicle.
That police vehicle had not been involved in the pursuit. It was in the area assisting with the search for the Passat.
Seven People Die
Everybody in both vehicles died.
The two Cleveland Police officers were:
- PC Matthew Blades, 37
- PC Tom Clough, 38
The five people travelling in the Passat were:
- Cole Robert Worthy, 17
- Theo Rae, 17
- Makai Saddington, 18
- Jakub Matusiak, 23
- Michael Robert Cahill, 23
The IOPC is independently investigating the circumstances surrounding the police pursuit.
That investigation is separate from Cleveland Police’s criminal investigation into the events which preceded the collision.
Monday 24 August – 12 People Arrested
Two days after the crash, Cleveland Police announced a major operation investigating what it called “the criminality which took place prior to the fatal crash”.
Nine men and three women, aged between 19 and 61, were arrested on suspicion of a range of offences.
Those alleged offences included possession of a firearm and participation in the activities of an organised crime group.
Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Fox described it as a “fast moving and complex investigation, with significant links to serious and organised criminal activity.”
Police also directly linked the Passat to the activity involving the Volvo which had reportedly rammed properties earlier that night.
Tuesday 25 August – Arrest Total Reaches 17
Police then announced another five arrests.
Those included:
- a 16-year-old boy, an 18-year-old man and a 21-year-old man arrested on suspicion of participating in an organised crime group
- a 55-year-old man arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender
- a 23-year-old man arrested on suspicion of threats to kill
The operation was supported by the National Crime Agency and North East Regional Organised Crime Unit.
Two men arrested during the wider police activity were also charged with separate alleged offences.
A 19-year-old man from Redcar was charged with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
A 26-year-old man from Redcar was charged with possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B drugs and possession of criminal property.
Those charges are allegations and must still be proved in court. Likewise, an arrest does not establish guilt.
Wednesday 26 August – Two Die In Grangetown House Fire
At 5.23am on Wednesday, emergency services were called to a house fire in Birchington Avenue, Grangetown.
Two people died.
Cleveland Police confirmed that one of the victims was a child. The force had not formally named either victim in its latest official statement, but family tributes and subsequent reporting have identified them as Valentina Foster, seven, and her aunt Natalie McDonald, 34.
A 48-year-old woman remained critically ill in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, while a further three people suffered injuries believed not to be life-threatening.
Police launched a murder investigation.
Later the same day, they announced that two men, aged 23 and 31, had been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Both remained in police custody for questioning at the time of the latest confirmed update.
Thursday 27 August – Another Property Hit In South Bank
Shortly after 12.30am on Thursday, police were called to Steele Crescent, South Bank, after a vehicle crashed repeatedly into a wall outside a property.
The property was empty and police said they had received no reports of injuries.
Superintendent Emily Harrison said officers were carrying out enquiries to establish the circumstances.
She added that the investigation was at an early stage and it had not been confirmed whether the incident was linked to wider organised crime.
That distinction is important. The location and timing make the incident relevant to the wider picture, but there is currently no confirmed link to Saturday’s rammings, the A66 crash or Wednesday’s fatal fire.
Is The Fire Connected To The Wider Investigation?
This is where reporting needs to be careful.
At present, police have not confirmed that the Grangetown fire is connected to the A66 crash or the criminal activity which preceded it.
But they have explicitly said that they are considering the possibility.
Superintendent Emily Harrison said:
“We continue to work to establish the circumstances of exactly what has happened, but we are keeping an open mind and cannot rule out any links to wider organised crime at this time.”
That is a significant statement.
It means an organised crime connection is a legitimate line of inquiry.
It does not mean one has been established.
Claims that the fire was definitely retaliation, revenge or part of a wider gang conflict would therefore go beyond what police have publicly confirmed.
What Is Definitely Connected?
There are several points where the evidence is considerably firmer.
Police say the Passat was associated with the Volvo involved in the property rammings.
Both vehicles were allegedly using cloned plates.
The Passat was linked by police intelligence to numerous incidents before the pursuit began.
The events before the crash have resulted in a widening criminal investigation and 17 arrests.
And Cleveland Police itself says that investigation has significant links to serious and organised criminal activity.
Those are not speculative connections. They are part of the official police account.
What We Still Do Not Know
There are also major gaps.
Police have not publicly explained:
- why the properties were rammed
- who the intended targets were
- why the Passat and Volvo were apparently operating together
- exactly what criminal activity preceded the A66 pursuit
- whether Wednesday’s fatal fire is connected to those events
- whether Thursday’s Steele Crescent incident is connected to the earlier rammings or wider organised crime
- whether the shootings in Grangetown and South Bank in July are related to the current investigation
Those unanswered questions matter.
Depending on what investigators eventually establish, this may turn out to be one extensive connected investigation.
It may also turn out that some serious incidents currently occurring in the same area have little or no connection with each other.
At the moment, nobody outside the investigation can responsibly say which.
Middlesbrough, South Bank And Grangetown
There is also some understandable geographical confusion in national coverage.
The incidents are taking place across a relatively small area of Teesside.
Middlesbrough itself has been central to the earlier vehicle ramming reports.
The fatal collision happened on the A66 at South Bank, where Thursday’s latest vehicle incident was also reported.
Grangetown and South Bank sit within Redcar and Cleveland, immediately east of Middlesbrough.
That is why stories may variously describe events as taking place in Middlesbrough, South Bank, Grangetown or more broadly on Teesside.
An Investigation That Is Still Growing
What began publicly as a devastating road collision has developed into something substantially bigger.
Two police officers and five occupants of a Volkswagen Passat are dead.
Police are investigating deliberate attacks on properties immediately before that collision.
Seventeen people have been arrested during a serious and organised crime operation involving regional and national agencies.
Two more people, including a seven-year-old child, have died in a suspected murder.
And another property in South Bank has now been hit by a vehicle, although police have not established that this latest incident is connected.
There are genuine connections between parts of this story.
There are also possible connections which investigators themselves are considering.
But there is not yet evidence to put every incident into one neat box.
That may change.
For now, the most accurate description is also the one Cleveland Police is giving: a fast-moving and complex investigation with significant links to serious and organised criminal activity, alongside other serious incidents in which wider organised crime connections have not been ruled out but have not been established.
That may be less dramatic than declaring a “gang war”.
But at the moment, it is what the evidence actually supports.
Fish 4 News will continue to follow the investigation and update this story when further information is confirmed.