Zimbabwean teen stabbed to death in London

The London Police have described the murder of a 16-year-old boy originally from Zimbabwe who on Saturday was  stabbed to death in broad daylight in the streets of London as 'about as bad as it gets'.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Dunne said Yemurai Lovemore Kanyangarara's murder was among the worst he had investigated in 25 years.

Onlookers described blood 'pouring' out of 16-year-old Yemurai's neck moments after he was knifed in broad daylight yesterday.

One witness said he watched the boy's life 'slip away' as he lay on the pavement on Upper Wickham Lane in Welling.

He was dead in less than five minutes - the eighth teenager to be murdered in London this year, six of whom have been fatally stabbed.

DCI Dunne told reporters: 'You've got someone, 16-year-old, a schoolboy, being stabbed in broad daylight in a busy street in front of many many shoppers out enjoying the afternoon. It's about as bad as it gets.

'It's among the very worst I've investigated in 25 years, the sheer brutality against a defenceless schoolboy.'

Police attended the scene at about 5pm following reports of the stabbing, but ambulance crews, including an air ambulance, were unable to save Yemurai, who came from nearby Belvedere, and he died later in hospital.

A post-mortem at Farnborough Hospital today revealed the teen was killed by a single stab wound to the neck.

A man was arrested in connection with the stabbing but has now been released without charge.

The officer told how the victim, who was brought to Britain from Zimbabwe when he was a toddler, stepped off a 96 bus with a friend and was attacked, probably within a matter of seconds.

Three boys who had been in a group of five or six who had got off another 96 at an earlier stop a few minutes before had walked on to the stop where Yemurai and his friend got off their bus.

They had been in a group of four but the other two got off the bus shortly before.

'The three boys off the first bus approached them, and one has taken a weapon out of his clothing and stabbed the victim just once in the neck,' said DCI Dunne.

This has caused catastrophic injuries, it seems he has died very quickly after that.'

The attackers, who like the victim were black, fled from the scene very quickly. They were thought to be teenagers.

DCI Dunne was unable to confirm whether the weapon was a knife.

Police so far have no clear motive for the attack, but the detective said it was suspected that the people who attacked Yemurai knew him.

He added: 'It would be wrong to suggest this was a random attack, our belief is that they were known to each other, but we don't know how.'

The victim was a pupil at St Columba's Catholic Boys' School in Bexleyheath, but DCI Dunne said he was dismissing suggestions of a rift between that school and another.

The detective said Yemurai had finished his GCSEs recently.

Although a pupil at St Columba's, he had been living with his father Kelton Kanyangarara in Leicester since January, and had returned to his mother Sharon Jambawo, a hospital worker, in south-east London to do his exams.

He had not been at school yesterday when he was attacked, at about 5pm.
Yemurai's headmaster had described him as 'polite', DCI Dunne said.

'If you asked him to do something, he would do it with a smile on his face.'

A web page set up in Yemurai's memory said the teenager enjoyed playing football.

Sam Pope, 19, who works at Bartletts florist next door to the Superdrug, told how she discovered the teenager bleeding to death on the street and saw three boys fleeing the scene.

'I had just gone outside for a cigarette when I saw blood on the ground,' she said.

'It was not a very nice scene. The boy was standing up and I saw blood absolutely pouring out of his neck.'

She helped him down to the floor and called emergency services.

While waiting for them to arrive, her colleague flagged down an ambulance, she said.

'The ambulance was on its way to hospital but it stopped and the paramedics helped him,' Miss Pope said.

But it was too late to save the boy.

'He was silent and had his eyes open,' Miss Pope said.

'It all happened so quickly.'

Angela Read, 48, who owns the florist and joined Miss Pope at the scene, described the futile efforts she and other local shop workers made to save the teenager's life.

'Someone from inside Superdrug threw out kitchen towels and a woman from Loose Linen [a shop across the road] brought out some towels,' she said.

'We tried to suppress the bleeding but if you had been a top professional you wouldn't have saved the lad.

'There was blood all over the pavement and we watched his life slip away in front of us.'

David Walker, 83, said a bike and crash helmet lay on the ground within the area being guarded by police.

'We were horrified,' he said.

'Nobody could say it's quiet around here but nothing like this has happened here before.'