‘Just tell us why’

The killing of 15-year-old Kiyan Prince outside his Edgware school on Thursday afternoon has left a community in shock and mourning.

The London Academy pupil, who lived in Bellamy Close, Edgware, was stabbed to death as he left his school in Green Lane at 3.35pm just yards from where two teenagers stabbed 24-year-old Abdul Gwalugano to death last July.

In a separate incident, two pupils of the flagship school were recently sent to prison for a gunpoint robbery.

It has also emerged that a pupil was expelled from the school earlier this year for carrying a knife. But this week London Academy's principal Phil Hearne said that behaviour at the school was excellent, and that all schools had to deal with a growing knife culture.

Kiyan, a talented footballer who played for Queens Park Rangers' youth team, was stabbed in the chest following an altercation with another teenager. He staggered 500 metres to just outside Stamford Court, a block of flats in Kings Drive, where he collapsed. A police sergeant from Edgware Safer Neighbourhoods Team was present at the school at the time of the stabbing and dashed to the gate to help him.

The model pupil', who was given a young leadership award by the school earlier this year, was taken by ambulance to the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel. An air ambulance attended the school, but was not used as Kiyan was considered too ill, and he died in hospital at 5.54pm.

The nearby McDonald's restaurant, in Stonegrove, Edgware, was sealed off on Thursday as police searched the premises. Well-wishers from across Barnet have visited the London Academy over the past week to pay their respects and lay flowers, including his boxer dad Mark Prince and 18-year-old sister Tannisa, who told Mr Hearne: "I just want to FROM Front Page sit down and ask him Kiyan's killer why'. Kiyan's mother Tracy Cumberbatch, a teacher in Barnet, was said to be inconsolable.

So many flowers were placed outside the school gates that a small memorial has been created inside with football cups Kiyan helped to win, shirts and cards. One message read: "Dearest Kiyan, you were a great boy. You were smart and you could have gone far. Rest in peace sweetheart."

The school has also had to deal with a media scrum outside the school, and some members of the national press have been reported to the police for offering large sums of money to pupils for information and pictures.

A neighbour in Bellamy Close, who asked not to be named, said: "It is so sad. He was such a good boy, no-one had a bad word to say against him. Everyone knows everyone in this street. I have lived here for 12 years and knew Kiyan very well."

Borough police commander Chief Superintendent Mark Ricketts said: "This is a devastating event for us in the whole borough. As a parent, I just can't get my head around it."

Police have urged calm, pointing out that, on average, only two knife crimes a week are committed in the borough. They have, however, stepped up high-visibility patrols in the area.

Councillor John Marshall, Barnet Council's cabinet member for education, said he was appalled by the attack. "There's a problem of youth crime most of the crime on young people is committed by other young people," he said. "A lot of it is almost senseless, stealing mobile phones which have a limited street value. Some of it is done to fuel drug habits, which are expensive.

"I just feel so sad for the parents of this child, because any parent invests so much hope, faith and love in their child and then to have him snatched away like this you cannot begin to imagine how they feel."

u On Tuesday night, two students from the school met legendary ex-footballer Pele, who penned a tribute to the promising footballer which will be given to his parents or including as a memorial.

Additional reporting by Marcus Dysch, Beena Nadeem and Alex Galbinski.

Back

© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.times-series.co.uk