Keelen Morris Wong (22) had just come out of the Domino’s Pizza outlet on busy Coldharbour Lane in Brixton and had stopped to talk to someone through a car window. It was a Tuesday last October, 2023, at about 4.45pm. Local children were still streaming home from nearby schools.
A man and two accomplices charged at Wong. The man had a so-called zombie blade, well over 1ft in length. He plunged it into Wong’s abdomen, the force apparently lifting his victim off the ground. Panicked shoppers scattered.
The attackers fled leaving the weapon behind. Wong died there on the street, yet another victim of the upsurge in knife attacks that has spread across London in recent years. A 23-year-old man and two 15-year-olds have been charged in connection with his murder.
The previous week, Elianne Andam (15) was on her way to school in Croydon at 8.30am. She had just got off a bus and was with two friends. Her attacker appeared on the scene wearing a mask and gloves. He produced a zombie-style knife from his waistband and stabbed her. She died at the scene.
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A youth was arrested that morning. Prosecutors told a subsequent court hearing that a friend of the dead girl had broken up with the accused and they had arranged to meet that morning to exchange possessions. The ex-girlfriend handed over his things but it was alleged he did not hand over hers. Andam challenged him and he stabbed her, it was alleged.
Earlier this year, a 17-year-old admitted the manslaughter of the young girl but he denied her murder. His plea was not accepted by the prosecution and a trial is expected to take place in November.
Also in September 2023, Ronaldo Scott (21) was near his home in Brixton in the early afternoon when he was jumped by two men who emerged from a car. He was stabbed and stumbled towards a park and children’s playground. He died there, in front of distraught family members and friends.
In April 2022, Rommel McKoy (16) was fatally stabbed on Hicken Road in Brixton. His killer, 18-year-old Juhvaine Elliot, was apparently the dead boy’s friend before he decided to attack him. Elliot was arrested at Gatwick airport as he tried to catch a flight to Jamaica. He was later convicted of murder.
McKoy’s mother later said that on the day he was stabbed, she had accompanied her son to an interview at Merton College for an engineering course: “He was so happy, he was going to study his dream course. He had his whole life ahead of him.”
When they got home from the interview he said he was going to see his friends. “That’s the last I saw of him,” said his mother.
Official figures from London’s Metropolitan Police show there were 16,366 knife crimes in London in the 12 months to July 2024, a rise of 9.4 per cent. In 2023, knife crimes were up almost 20 per cent. There were approximately 112 murders in London last year and about 70 of them involved a knife. The number of stabbings in London is now at or surpassing its pre-pandemic peak. A 32-year-old woman, who was with her young child, was stabbed at the Notting Hill carnival on Sunday.
The previous government under the Tories moved earlier this year to ban zombie-style knives, which are characterised by long blades of more than 8in, a serrated edge and a sharp point. The ban comes into effect on September 24th.
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In advance of the prohibition, police across England and Wales this week launched a month-long amnesty and compensation scheme for zombie knives. People who surrender a knife are entitled to up to £30 (€35.50) for each qualifying blade.
Brixton’s police station is one of the designated locations for surrendering a knife under the scheme. There is a knife bin permanently situated outside the station, although in the past locals have complained that it overflowed with blades that passersby could reach in and easily pluck out.
This week, there were no surrendered knives to be seen sticking out of the bin outside Brixton police station as the zombie blade amnesty began. But just a 10-minute walk away on Coldharbour Lane, on the lawn outside the Barrier Block flats, a temporary memorial to Keelen Morris Wong was still intact, 10 months after his brutal murder directly across the street.
Plastic flowers and pictures of the dead man that were tied to the wiring around a young tree. Old candles, long since burned out, were scattered in the grass around the base of the tree. A small plaque had also been attached to the wiring, above a photo of Wong: “Gone but never forgotten. Always in our hearts.”