Moment teenager brandishes knife before stabbing boy to death
Chilling footage has been released of a teenager brandishing a huge machete before killing a 14-year-old boy in the street.
Marques Walker, 17, was handed a life sentence on Tuesday after pleading guilty to the murder of Jermaine Cools in Croydon, south London on 18 November 2021.
The attack and Walker’s escape were captured by CCTV and a passerby recording on their phone.
Jermaine was unarmed when he fell victim to the killer on a busy street near West Croydon rail station, becoming the youngest fatality involving knife crime in London that year.
On Tuesday, Walker became the first youth to be sentenced live on television as a judge at the Old Bailey handed him a life sentence with a minimum term of 19 years.
He pleaded guilty to murder, possessing a knife and a separate incident of grievous bodily from an attack he took part in while in HMP Feltham after the killing.
The court heard how the defendant, from Bromley, was caught on CCTV footage calmly walking towards Jermaine and drawing a machete from his coat.
Jermaine either fell or was pushed to the ground before the youth ran towards him and repeatedly lunged at him with the blade.
Judge Sarah Munro KC said: “This is yet another case of the senseless murder of a young teenager committed for reasons no mature adult could fathom.”
She said Walker stabbed Jermaine “mercilessly” and the victim “must have been terrified and in agony”.
Police identified Walker from CCTV footage but he went to ground, sleeping on the sofas of friends for nearly six weeks.
On 27 December 2021, he was found at an address hiding behind a bed and initially gave a false name to officers.
Prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC said: “It is clear that Jermaine Cools did not stand a chance. He could offer no resistance. He was unarmed, he was on the floor, and he was totally vulnerable.
“He was stabbed a total of seven times by Marques Walker in a senseless attack of extreme ferocity.”
Jermaine’s mother Lorraine Dudek told how the family had witnessed “victim blaming” as people struggled to accept that boys with no gang connection could be “stabbed for no reason”.
But she said: “People don’t realise it can just be anyone’s child.”
Walker boasted about the killing in rap lyrics which were found by a prison guard in his cell at Feltham. The killer wrote: “Even if that youth was a civillian I would still rewind and chef up [stab] his back.”
The court was told the defendant had previously been caught carrying three large knives.
