Tears for London teenager killed in front of shoppers

Police seek three suspects, now on the run, as headteacher and friends pay tribute to ‘kind’ Yemurai Lovemore Kanyangarara, 16 In the warm sunshine on a busy high street in Welling, south-east London, bunches of bright flowers were piling up outside a shuttered shop. Girls clutched at each other in tears, while a group of young men stood in silence reading the tributes to their dead friend, the eighth teenager to die violently in London this year. It was at this spot on Friday during the late afternoon bustle that Yemurai Lovemore Kanyangarara, a 16-year-old with hopes of going to university, was stabbed in the neck in broad daylight as shoppers looked on, a brazen attack that left even police shocked. The blow severed an artery and killed him. After laying a bouquet of flowers with a card which stated “Gonna miss you a lot Yemz”, Shaquille Keith, 16, said his friend kept out of trouble. His face streaked with tears, he said: “You couldn’t not like him, he was so kind.” Asked why he thought Kanyangarara had been targeted, Keith articulated how disturbingly common deaths caused by knife crime have become, and the impact they are having on south London communities. “It was just one of those things,” he said. Police are hunting for three teenagers, who they said had gone on the run from their homes after the attack and were still fugitives on Monday. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Dunne urged them to think of Kanyangarara’s family, who fled violence in Zimbabwe when he was a toddler, and give themselves up. “We currently have three frightened teenage boys who we know have left home and are on the run from police, possibly hiding in the Greater London area. This cannot go on forever and sooner or later they will have to speak to me,” he said. “I am appealing for them to come forward now for the sake of Yemurai’s family who, needless to say, are absolutely devastated by his death.” The attack, described by Dunne as one of the worst killings he has investigated, happened on the busy high street at 5pm, moments after Kanyangarara had stepped off a bus with a friend. Police believe his neck was slashed, before three teenage boys ran from the scene. Barry Donn, co-owner of the nearby Loose Linen shop, described holding a towel to Kanyangarara’s neck to stem the blood flow. “I tried talking to him but he was not at all responsive. I asked what his name was, but his eyes were closed,” he said. “No one could have saved that boy, he was gone.” Police are believed to have identified the attackers. Friends said Kanyangarara, a keen footballer, had no links to local gangs. “He was always the calm one, he didn’t get into fights. He was just so talented, he didn’t deserve this,” said friend Natalie Miller, 16. “He wasn’t in a gang, he didn’t do anything wrong. They need to find the killer. It wasn’t his time.” Nigel Fisher, headteacher at St Columba’s Roman Catholic boys’ school in Bexleyheath, where Kanyangararaich had attended, said he had been planning to go on to university. “He had ability and he was going to use it,” he said. “His death is, in a true sense, completely tragic. What a waste of a wonderful life that lay ahead.” Knife crime Crime London Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.