Isaiah Popoola charged with murders of two men in Camden

Two more fatal knife attacks have claimed lives in London as police battle a rise in violent crime.

So far this year 15 people have been stabbed to death in the capital, five of whom were teenagers.  

31 December: Meschak Dos Santos Cornelio, 18, was knifed in Larmans Road in Enfield, at 11.30am and died in hospital later that evening. Meshak, the second of five siblings, was a promising footballer and trained as a plumber and electrician before dropping out of college in Enfield, according to his stepfather. He was known by his friend by the nickname ‘Chak’.

The son of a dinner lady who had come to Britain from Angola 19 years ago, his main interest was grime and rap music, to which he used to sing along in his bedroom at the family’s housing association property near the A10.

31 December: Taofeek Lamidi, 20, was repeatedly stabbed during an attack in Memorial Avenue, West Ham, on New Year’s Eve and a postmortem found the cause of death to be a knife wound to the heart. 

He was a talented footballer who moved to London as a child with his family from Nigeria. He died just two days short of his 21st birthday and had planned to become a personal trainer.

31 December: Kyall Parnell, 17, from Croydon, was attacked in front of horrified revellers on his way to a New Year’s Eve party and died after being chased through traffic in Tulse Hill, south London. 

He was a keen rapper and his Facebook account showed him in a number of ‘gangsta rap’ poses. The teenager had recently enrolled on a bricklaying apprenticeship.

1 January: Steve Frank Narvaez-Arias, 20, was stabbed in the chest on New Year’s Day at a flat party in a council estate off Old Street in Islington, north London. 

After moving to the UK from Ecuador, the 20-year-old was reading physics and aerospace at Hertfordshire University and hoped to become a pilot.

There have been 15 fatal stabbings in London so far this year – Tuesday night was the bloodiest in the capital 

3 January: Elizabeta Lacatusu, 44, was found bleeding to death on Norfolk Road, in Ilford, after she had her throat slashed. 

She worked at a restaurant in the east London town and was returning home when she was stabbed to death.

11 January: Harry Uzoka – who had modelled for brands including Mercedes and Zara – was stabbed in Shepherd’s Bush. 

Uzoka, who was on the books of Premier Model Management, died from a single stab wound.  

Neighbours on Old Oak Road, East Acton, reported a shout of ‘hand it over’ in the melee which involved several men. Uzoka, 25, staggered into the street from a housing estate before collapsing.  

3 February: Kwabena Nelson, 22, was ambushed in Tottenham in the early hours where he was fatally stabbed. 

Mr Nelson’s family is originally from Ghana and he worked for a Haringey-based award-winning project which tackles gang problems.  

3 February: Hasan Ozcan, 19, from Barking, East London, died after being knifed several times outside the Gascoigne Estate Barking which has been plagued by stabbings and shootings. 

Speaking after his death Hasan’s father, Abdullah Ozcan, said: ‘We have to be like brothers – black, white, Asian, Turkish. I don’t want anyone to have to stand here like me. I don’t want anyone else’s kids getting hurt.’

His mother, Emine, said: ‘I want to stop the gangs, stop the knives, stop the killing.’

He had been studying criminology at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent.

5 February: Juan Olmos Saca, from Southwark, died in hospital a week after being stabbed in Peckham.

9 February: Hannah Leonard, 55, was found with stab wounds in an apartment block in Brays Tower, Primrose Hill. The grandmother-of-two was born in Co. Cork before moving to London in the 1980s.

Her daughter, Caroline Snowling, said her mother was ‘extremely loyal’ and doted on her two grandsons, six-year-old Jack and Jamie, 15. 

11 February: Sabri Chibani, 19, was stabbed to death in Streatham, South London 11 weeks after moving to the capital from his native Italy to build himself a ‘great future’.

He was attacked inside a house near Streatham Common before staggering outside and collapsing in the driveway.

His family migrated to Italy from Tunisia and he grew up in Piacenza, a city 70km south-west of Milan in northern Italy. He followed his brother to London in November in search of a job and was said to be working as a bar tender at the time of his death.

14 February: Promise Nkenda, 17, from Newham, East London, died from knife wounds to the chest after he was attacked on Valentine’s Day in Canning Town.

Nkenda was described as a ‘unique character’ and a ‘cherished’ member of Fight for Peace, a group which supported deprived youngsters.

18 February: Lewis Blackman, 19, from Camden, North London, was stabbed to death outside Freddie Mercury’s old house in Kensington, West London, following a party. 

20 February: Abdikarim Hassan, 17, was knifed to death in Camden at 8.30pm on Tuesday.

20 February: Less than two hours later, Sadiq Aadam Mohamed, 20, died after being stabbed in Malden Road, Camden.



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