A schoolboy murdered in broad daylight on a busy shopping street died from a single stab wound to the neck, the results of a post-mortem examination confirmed.
Yemurai Kanyangarara, 16, was stabbed minutes after he stepped off a 96 bus with a friend on his way home from school on Friday afternoon.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Dunne, who is leading the murder investigation, said the killing was among the worst he had investigated in 25 years as a police officer.
The killing of the the schoolboy capped a violent week in London which also saw Andrew Jaipaul, 21, stabbed to death in Holloway and a man, 41, shot dead in his home in Thornton Heath.
Elsewhere, a violent week in Bristol ended with the fatal shooting yesterday night of a man outside a pub in the St Paul’s area following the end of the annual carnival. A man in his 30s was also stabbed to death in the city on Friday.
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The Metropolitan Police appealed for potential witnesses to the murder of Yemurai to come forward with information. Detectives believe the boy must have known his killer, who was among a group of youths who approached him after he stepped off the bus.
Mr Dunne said: “You’ve got someone 16 years 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.”
The killing was carried out by a group of boys who got off an earlier bus. The detective said: “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.”
The three black youths ran off as shopworkers rushed out to help the boy who had blood pouring from the wound. Angela Read, 48, who owns a florist shop, said: “Someone from inside Superdrug threw out kitchen towels and a woman from Loose Linen brought out some towels.
“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.”
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Yemurai came to Britain from Zimbabwe with his parents when he was 3. He was a pupil at St Columba’s Catholic Boys’ School in Bexleyheath.
Nigel Fisher, the school’s head teacher, said: “We are devastated and shocked by Yemurai’s death, we have no experience of this ever in school, to my knowledge. He was a very popular and very well-known student, a kind, gentle lad, hard working, and just finished his GCSEs.”