‘Lock your doors… everyone lock your doors!’ Minute-by-minute, how the horrifying ordeal of a knifeman stalking the streets of north-east London unfolded after ‘random’ attack left 14-year-old boy dead
Commuters were heading to the subway and the single-family homes were buzzing with activity, getting ready for school.
But the Tuesday morning routine of residents in the quiet Hainaut district of northeast London was suddenly disrupted by the sound of a speeding van crashing into the side of a house.
Moments later, deafening screams echoed around a suburban neighborhood as a 14-year-old boy in his tracksuit was cut down by a vicious and unprovoked sword attack.
It was part of a terrifyingly violent and bloody rampage that left the boy dead and four others, including two police officers, seriously injured.
Exactly what happened – and why – is what police were still trying to figure out last night, as they were unable to question their suspect while he was treated in hospital. But witnesses said that at around 6.50am a gray Ford Transit van with its bumper hanging down stopped in the middle of a cul-de-sac on Laing Close.
The police arrived on the scene after reports that a car had crashed into a building
A man ‘wielding a machete’ was seen ‘prowling the streets of east London’
Neighbors cautiously opened their front doors and peered out of garden windows after a man broke free from the crumpled and smoking van, holding a mobile phone and asking onlookers where he was. The confusion quickly turned to fear as the man pulled a samurai-style sword from the back of his pants and began sneaking through the streets.
The schoolboy victim, believed to be the son of two teachers, had no chance, witnesses said. Just meters from his front door, he was knocked down when a neighbor shouted to warn him.
The teenager later died in hospital, but an onlooker said the attack was so brutal he thought he died ‘on the spot’.
As the victim lay mortally wounded on the corner of Laing Close, his killer dragged him from the road to the pavement before beginning to prowl through the front gardens, wielding his weapon as if hunting for his next target.
“He was running around even after the police officers came, with the sword in his hand looking for victims,” James Fernando said.
Cellphone footage showed a bearded man wearing a yellow Quiksilver hoodie crouching in front of a house and scanning the street as police cars and an ambulance approached.
A terrified resident said: ‘We were very scared and tried to hide and not be seen through the window as he was standing right next to our house and could have seen us if he looked up.
“We tried to hide, but at the same time we also took videos of him attacking the police, and of the body on the ground, so yes, we were very scared and didn’t know what to do.”
The man was confronted by the first police officer on the scene, who reached out as he desperately called for help over the radio, torn between trying to help the stricken teenager and chasing after his attacker.
Dramatic footage showed the moment a sword-wielding man was tasered and arrested
The suspect was not deterred by the arrival of the emergency services and shouted: ‘Does anyone here believe in God?’ before turning and fleeing from the approaching officer into an alley in Franklin Gardens.
As brave officers pursued the suspect, he lashed out at them with the sword, leaving two with injuries serious enough to require surgery. He also shot two members of the public, believed to be commuters heading to Hainaut station. They had to be rushed to hospital with sword wounds.
The man was then captured on video as officers tried to pin him down in what appeared to be a cul-de-sac: a section of garages hidden between Franklyn Gardens and Thurlow Gardens.
But when a police officer calmly approached and demanded ‘come here, drop the sword’, the man quickly climbed over a fence and reappeared on top of adjacent garages before disappearing from view into an adjacent backyard.
The officer’s tone soon changed to panic, muttering ‘he’s going into people’s gardens, man’, before bellowing a warning to local residents: ‘Lock your doors! Everyone lock the doors!’
Still brandishing his samurai-style sword, the man began jumping garden fences before making his way to a driveway in Thurlow Gardens where, thanks to 1,200-volt Tasers, he was subdued and his rampage put to an end.
Chief Inspector Stuart Bell reads a statement to the media near the crime scene in Hainault, North East London, after a child died
The major emergency service in Hainaut on April 30. Pictured: New North Road
“Don’t move, don’t fucking move,” came from the officers surrounding him. Nagesh Katipally, who lives on the street, said: “When the police came, they took the knife and wrapped him in a black sheet.
‘They put it over his head and then around the rest of his body, then they lifted him up and carried him away. He was still alive and showed resistance.’
The relief was palpable in the voice of the police officer who blew into his duty radio: “Subject clear.”
It was the same relief that quickly spread across Hainaut as the horrific ordeal came to an end – but the questions and the fallout will continue.