Stabbed to death for his iPhone
Moped muggers kill charity worker, 28
A CHARITY worker was stabbed by moped muggers for his iPhone and died after collapsing on his doorstep.
Abdul Samad, 28, who was described as a ‘role model for children’, was knifed in the heart by two yobs during a struggle as they attempted to snatch his iPhone 7 outside his home.
The Westminster University economics graduate stumbled to the front door of his block of flats and pressed the buzzer to raise help before collapsing in a pool of blood.
Yesterday his devastated brother, Abdul Ahad, told how his mother rushed outside as he lay fatally injured outside their home in Little Venice, north west London.
His parents, who came to the UK from Bangladesh in the 1960s, were unable to stem the bleeding and Mr Samad died in hospital just an hour after the attack, which happened at 11.45pm on Monday.
His 37-year-old brother said: ‘He came to the door and buzzed and was covered in blood. The knife went through his heart. My mum and dad came down and he was lying on the floor.
‘My mum then called me and said “your brother is dying”. ‘It was over a phone. It’s just so senseless.’
Police are questioning two teenagers aged 18 and 17 arrested on suspicion of murder.
Mr Samad, who had been due to marry his long-term girlfriend next year, was attacked on his way home from a friend’s house where he had been playing computer games that evening.
One friend said: ‘There were a couple of guys on mopeds who approached him, they’re always riding around here, and they tried to get his iPhone 7. We think he must have fought back.’
Mr Ahad said his brother had dedicated his life to helping local children. ‘This is a young life gone and such a lovely life,’ he told the Evening Standard. ‘He was born in St Mary’s Hospital and he’s died there.’
Mr Samad worked for the community charity Covent Garden Dragon Hall Trust helping young Londoners develop their computer skills and taking them on trips to the theatre and other activities.
Director Nicole Furre said he helped youngsters with their homework at an after- school club and they looked up to him. ‘Abdul was a big part of our team,’ she said. ‘It has been a terrible shock and it will have a knock-on effect on those he helped. He was a very good role model. We are going to think about how we break the news to these children.’
Yesterday, Scotland Yard Commissioner Cressida Dick said she was shocked by the scale of crimes involving mopeds and added that lawlessness in the capital has a ‘feeling of anarchy’ about it.
She suggested many robbers on two wheels are simply imitating other criminals they have seen in videos posted online.
‘There is an organised crime network tasking young people to steal mopeds and getting them to ride them for robberies,’ said Miss Dick. ‘But it is a relatively small number of people who are determinedly doing this.’