A 24-year-old man charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing a 9-year-old boy in the face and head on the street in Peterborough, England, has been named as Faisal Khan.
Khan, of Almond Road, Dogsthorpe, was also charged with possession of a knife in a public place — although he remains innocent of all charges unless and until he is proven guilty in a court of law.
Described as a “Peterborough man” by the BBC, Khan was charged after Cambridgeshire Constabulary launched an appeal for information about a suspect they described as “an Asian man who was tall, skinny, scruffy in appearance with black short-to-medium length messy hair and… wearing black jogging bottoms and a big coat.”
(In British parlance, “Asian” typically refers to someone with roots in South Asia — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and so on — rather than the Far East.)
The attacker is said to have approached his 9-year-old victim as he “was walking along the street with his older brother” and began stabbing him in the face and head, leaving him with “life-changing injuries”.
“There was so much blood pouring down his face you couldn’t see his tears,” said local woman Sadia Zeb in comments to The Sun Online.
“His brother was in a complete panic and ran home to get his mum while we called the police and ambulance and helped calm him,” she recalled.
“He was an absolutely brave little boy. He was so cute, no one deserves that.”
Police said shortly after the attack that, while they “understand this will be a concerning incident for members of the public”, they thought it “appear[ed] to be a random attack” and “isolated incident”.
The boy is currently in Addenbrooke’s Hospital where he “remains in a stable condition”, according to the police.
Faisal Khan will appear before Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday.