London Knife Crime Epidemic: Murder Investigation Launched After Man Stabbed to Death

A murder investigation has been launched after a man in his 20s was stabbed multiple times and died in south-west London in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Emergency services were called to Cambridge Gardens, Kingston Upon Thames, at 2:16 am after passersby found him bleeding out on the street, suffering from multiple stab wounds.

The witnesses applied CPR, but medics pronounced him dead shortly after first responders arrived on the scene, reports getwestlondon.

“A murder investigation has been launched in Kingston-Upon-Thames after a man was fatally stabbed in the early hours of Sunday, August 5,” said a Metropolitan Police spokesman.

“Police were called to Cambridge Gardens by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) at 2.16am following reports of a stabbing.

“Officers attended and found a man in his twenties suffering from stab wounds.

“Despite the efforts of police who gave initial CPR and attending paramedics, he was pronounced dead at the scene at 3.02am.”

The victim has not been identified by police, and officers are in the process of informing his next of kin.

A post-mortem is scheduled, and no arrests have been made.

The area has been cordoned off and extra officers have been put on to patrol the streets with police saying that “Officers from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are leading this investigation in close partnership with officers in Kingston.”

The young man is the latest victim of rising knife crime in the capital. There have been more than 80 homicide investigations opened since January, the vast majority as a result of stabbings.

The Office for National Statistics’ recent data release of police-recorded crimes in England and Wales revealed that offences involving knives or sharp instruments rose by 16 percent to 40,147 – the fourth consecutive increase in knife attacks.

Leftist London Mayor Sadiq Khan said earlier this year that he “can not solve knife crime by [him]self”, blaming Conservative government cuts.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani criticised Khan for crime “spiralling” out of control in London.

While Mr Giuliani enforced a tough zero-tolerance approach to crime during his tenure —  known as the ‘broken windows’ model of law enforcement where police tackle signs of disorder in a community, like graffiti or broken windows, to increase community confidence and prevent a breeding ground for more serious crime — the opposite can be said to have happened in London, where the Metropolitan Police are dropping investigations into minor crime while serious crime continues to rise.