Shakilus Townsend Tribute

from the BBC

A teenager called for his mother as he lay dying after being stabbed in a street in south London.

Shakilus Townsend, 16, from Deptford, south-east London, was found with multiple knife wounds in Beulah Crescent, Thornton Heath, on Thursday.

He died in a hospital shortly after midnight. He is the 18th teenager to be murdered in London this year.

The building's residents said the youth called for his "mum" and said "I don't want to die" as they tried to save him.

Police said he was attacked shortly after 1400 BST on Thursday. No suspects have yet been arrested.

People living close to the scene described how they tried desperately to save Shakilus.

Dee Bamina, 35, tried to stem the bleeding from a wound to his chest with a bath towel after another neighbour brought him into the communal doorway of her block of flats.

"I think a group of boys must have been after the boy," she said.

"All I heard was them saying 'get him from the other side'."

Ms Bamina saw a gang of four or five youths, aged 15 to 19, with scarves covering their faces. One had a baseball bat. A girl was also with them, she said.

She said the boy was saying "I don't want to die" and "where's my mum, I want my mum".

An air ambulance was scrambled but Shakilus was eventually taken to hospital by road after being treated at the scene.

Det Ch Insp Cliff Lyons said: "This is another senseless incident in which a young life has been taken away by a knife.

"Given that this happened outside a block of flats in broad daylight, I am certain there are people who will have witnessed this murder."

Neighbour Richard Higgins, 17, said he saw the weapon that was used.

"It was a big kitchen knife, maybe 18in," he said.

"He had stab wounds on his stomach and one big long wound on his chest."