Youth arrested after teenager stabbed to death in Birmingham
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder after another youth was fatally stabbed in Birmingham.
The youth was arrested on Monday night and remains in custody after a 17-year-old male was attacked in Norwood Road at about 2pm on Monday, West Midlands Police said.
The victim is the third teenager to be fatally stabbed in the city in a fortnight.
#ARREST Detectives investigating the death of a 17-year-old boy in #Birmingham have arrested a teenager on suspicion of murder. The 16-year-old boy was arrested last night as part of the investigation into the fatal stabbing in Norwood Road yesterday. https://t.co/FE9PjJXVRi
— West Midlands Police (@WMPolice) February 26, 2019
The force have named the latest victim as Hazrat Umar, who died at the scene.
Specialist officers are supporting his family, and a post-mortem examination is due to take place in due course.
Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor in Greater Manchester who oversaw the Rochdale child sex abuse case, said the victim was one of his relatives.
He tweeted: “Sadly, my sister-in-laws nephew,18, was stabbed to death today in Birmingham With Brexit: is anyone paying attention to double figure murders in Bham this yr London is much safer proportionately Where’s the outrage? Why do our children have to die?”
Thank you all for your kind messagesMy family’s tragedy will be repeated across the country over and over againUntil we grasp the issueUntil we fund children & youth servicesUntil we respect each & every life regardless
— nazir afzal (@nazirafzal) February 26, 2019
Friends paid tribute to the victim, calling him “a really nice kid” and “a lovely guy”.
Another said gym-goer Hazrat “wasn’t even a trouble maker – there was no beef for someone to stab him”.
So far in 2019, West Midlands Police are believed to have launched seven confirmed murder investigations.
. @DCSPayneWMP “Tragically another young life has been lost to knife crime, the third in Birmingham over the last two weeks. My thought are with Hazrat’s family who are devastated by this senseless act and we are doing all we can to bring the person responsible to justice." pic.twitter.com/nL33VdmsEc
— West Midlands Police (@WMPolice) February 26, 2019
The latest offence occurred five days after 16-year-old Abdullah Muhammad was discovered fatally wounded near a park in Small Heath.
Another teenager, Sidali Mohamed, also 16, died in hospital on February 15 after being attacked outside a college in Balsall Heath.
Following the latest attack, in the Bordesley Green area, Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne, from the force’s homicide team, said: “Tragically another young life has been lost to knife crime – the third in Birmingham over the last two weeks.
“My thought are with Hazrat’s family who are devastated by this senseless act and we are doing all we can to bring the person responsible to justice.
“Knife crime and violence is not an issue we can tackle on our own. We need help from partners, parents, schools and the wider community to tackle this growing issue.
“We all need to be having heart-to-heart conversations with children in an attempt to steer them away from knives and help prevent more lives from being ruined.
“The message that carrying weapons is unacceptable and won’t be tolerated needs to be more firmly reinforced amongst our young people and we all have a role to play in that.
“We all feel the heartbreak of the loss of anyone so young – and a death at the hands of a knife is such a waste of life.
“We’re doing all we can to tackle knife crime, we’re using stop and search powers to target those who carry knives, seizing weapons and working with young people to talk about the dangers of carrying weapons.
“Our intensive investigations ruthlessly pursue those who wish to cause this harm among our communities. And we’ll do all we can to bring offenders to justice.
“While this arrest is a significant step forward in our investigation, we still need anyone who was in the area to come forward and tell us what they saw or know.”
