Daily Mail

Knife victim on phone to police when she was killed

She ‘repeatedly called them about violent ex in her last 24 hours’

- By Claire Duffin

‘She was upset because he had hit her mother’

A YOUNG woman stabbed to death alongside her mother was on the phone to police when she was killed, it emerged yesterday.

Raneem Oudeh, 22, had also rung police about her ‘violent’ ex-boyfriend only two hours before her death but officers failed to turn up, it was claimed.

She had reported Janbaz Tarin, 21, after he allegedly slapped her mother across the face during a heated row at a shisha bar on Sunday night.

It was one of three calls she made to police in the hours leading up to her death but officers failed to attend, a friend said.

Instead, West Midlands Police initially assigned a ‘diary car’, meaning her complaints would be dealt with later by appointmen­t rather than with an immediate response.

Miss Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem, 49, died in the early hours of Monday following a frenzied knife attack outside Mrs Saleem’s home in Northdown Road, Solihull, West Midlands.

Neighbours in the quiet suburban street initially thought their screams of terror were the sound of foxes. Detectives have named Tarin, 21, as the only suspect. Three properties in the West Midlands have been raided but he was still at large last night, prompting fears he may have fled abroad.

As the force faced growing questions over its handling of the case, it emerged that Miss Oudeh called police from the Rotana Shisha bar in Digbeth, Birmingham, at around 10.30pm on Sunday.

Miss Oudeh, a student who worked part-time, also allegedly called officers while she was at work on Sunday morning and again later in the day to say she and her mother were being followed home, a friend claimed.

A customer at the shisha bar said Miss Oudeh, her mother and Tarin were seen having a row on Sunday night.

‘I don’t know what they were arguing about but he called her “wife”,’ she said. ‘I heard the slap and my friend saw it.

‘We looked up and the young woman was shouting. She was obviously upset because he had hit her mother, in public.

‘Staff escorted the man out and she called police but they didn’t come.’

Miss Oudeh, who has a twoyear-old son from a previous relationsh­ip, had lived with Tarin in a flat in Kingshurst, Birmingham, but it is understood that days ago she moved out and into her mother’s house, allegedly following a series of rows.

Neighbours said police had been called to the flat dozens of times in the months leading up to her death. Detectives hunting Tarin kicked down the door of the flat at 10.30am on Monday.

Miss Oudeh and her mother, who had five other children, were originally from Syria but had lived in the UK for at least 16 years.

Tarin is originally from Afghanista­n but was living in Britain legally. He ran a shop with his father, who lives in Sparkhill, Birmingham.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: ‘There were a number of calls from Miss Oudeh to police on Sunday evening and we tried to physically locate her but were unsuccessf­ul. Contact was being made to arrange to see Miss Oudeh and it was during this conversati­on that the situation quickly escalated.

‘The call handler immediatel­y dispatched officers to the location in Northdown Road, where they arrived within minutes.’

The force has reported itself to the police watchdog, due to ‘previous contact’ with the victims’ family. The Independen­t Office for Police Conduct will now look at how the victim’s calls to police were handled.

West Midlands Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson said a ‘huge effort’ was under way to find Tarin.

 ??  ?? Victim: Raneem Oudeh was stabbed with her mother
Victim: Raneem Oudeh was stabbed with her mother
 ??  ?? Hunt: Janbaz Tarin is being sought by police
Hunt: Janbaz Tarin is being sought by police
 ??  ?? Victim: Khaola Saleem
Victim: Khaola Saleem

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