London police have arrested two men and launched a murder investigation after a man was fatally stabbed at a vigil for another stabbing victim.
Scotland Yard released a statement confirming the name of Tuesday night’s fatal stabbing at Alpha Road in Croydon, South London, as 23-year-old Reece Young.
Young had been attending a vigil for another recent fatal stabbing victim — reportedly 19-year-old Tai Jordan O’Donnell, who was killed on the same road just a few weeks ago — when, according to the Metropolitan Police, a fight broke out between three men.
Officers were called to Alpha Road at around 9:10 p.m. on Tuesday, with Scotland Yard confirming that the victim, pronounced dead at the scene, was Mr Young.
Speaking to the Evening Standard, one resident said: “We are living in a state of fear. We are frightened for our children.”
Two men had fled the area but later appeared at a South London hospital requiring treatment for stab wounds.
Police arrested both on Wednesday on suspicion of murder. One of the men, aged 33, is still receiving medical treatment. The other had assaulted NHS staff and police officers before forcing his way out of the hospital, later to be found and returned to custody.
The Met’s Detective Chief Inspector Richard Vandenbergh appealed for witnesses or footage of the incident.
Chief Inspector Vandenbergh said: “We believe this incident was witnessed by a number of people. They had gathered for a small vigil in remembrance of another recent fatal stabbing victim when an altercation began.”
Homicides peaked at 100 in the capital for the sixth year running in 2020, despite the ongoing coronavirus restrictions, with the report from October revealing half of them were a result of stabbings.
A report from February found that knife crime across England and Wales had doubled in six years, with overly 50,000 offences recorded in the year to March 2020.
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