Police failings led to "unlawful killing" of fans in UK's Hillsborough soccer disaster

Police failures were to blame for the deaths of 96 Liverpool soccer fans in the 1989 Hillsborough stadium crush, a jury concluded today after two years of hearings into Britain's worst sporting disaster. The verdicts of "unlawful killing", which could pave the way for prosecutions, were greeted with a mix of cheers and tears by relatives of the victims, who sang the Liverpool fans' anthem "You'll never walk alone" outside the court in Warrington, northern England. They had campaigned for almost three decades to get "Justice for the 96", refusing to accept the deaths were accidental and accusing police of covering up exactly what happened. "The story of Hillsborough is a story of human tragedy but it is also a story of deceit and lies, of institutional defensiveness defeating truth and justice," said a statement from some of the bereaved families. The fans, many of them young, died in an overcrowded, fenced-in enclosure at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, northern England, at an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on a warm, sunny afternoon in April 27 years ago. Harrowing images of supporters crushed against metal fences, bodies lying on the pitch and spectators...