MY SON, MY SON!
Mother’s cries as she sees bloody scene where son, 15, was stabbed to death
THE distraught mother of a murdered schoolboy cried ‘my son, my son’ as she visited the bloodstained street where he was stabbed.
Tashaun Jones, 15, an aspiring music producer, was killed in a double stabbing on Wednesday night.
Family members including his mother Michelle, brother, sister and grandfather gathered at the scene in Hackney, northeast London, yesterday to grieve.
Tashaun’s mother was stopped from breaking the cordon by family members as she laid some flowers by the scene along with a card which simply read: ‘To my beautiful son. Love you. Mum.’
Another female family member who also laid flowers at the scene shouted: ‘This is our blood. Our family’s blood is on the ground here.’
Tashaun died at the scene. A 16-yearold boy was also stabbed in the same incident, but did not sustain life-threatening injuries.
The two victims, who were with friends, were stabbed in ‘some sort of confrontation with another group’, police said.
The latest tragedy came as the head of Scotland Yard claimed police were turning the tide on violent crime.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick unveiled a string of figures showing falls in stabbings, youth violence and murders at a media briefing. But she admitted it seemed ‘ cold and unemotional’ to make such an announcement within hours of a 15-year-old being killed on the capital’s streets.
And she faced criticism with one former officer accusing the force of being ‘nowhere near on getting a grip on this’.
Tashaun was the eighth teenager to be stabbed to death in the capital this year. His grandfather, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘ This is a difficult time... we are suffering. Someone has to stop all this violence. Nobody deserves this. Schoolboys should not be getting killed.’
A schoolfriend of Tashaun said he was a talented musician who produced backing tracks which he then sold to ‘big artists’, including drill rappers.
He said: ‘ He was a nice guy, a good guy. He was a producer, not just Afro beats he would do drill beats as well. He was really bubbly and always gave away positive energy. I never thought one of my friends would be murdered.’
Tashaun had attended Hackney New School after leaving Mossbourne Community Academy and was a keen footballer and an Arsenal fan. His grandfather said he also used the surname Aird.
Tashaun’s family hurried to the scene on the evening of his death. A mother of two living nearby said: ‘I heard the poor boy’s sister screaming. The police were keeping her back and she was shouting, “That’s my brother, my brother”. It was heartbreaking to hear.’
One of the boys fled into a nearby fruit and vegetable shop, Elif Food Centre. A shopkeeper said: ‘He was holding his side. He came in and said, “Help me, help me.” There was blood everywhere.’
On the same evening shortly after midnight, a 26-year-old man was stabbed near Camden Tube station, north London, and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. In the pre-planned press conference Scotland Yard announced that its blitz on violent crime, which included a 30 per cent increase in stop and searches, had brought down youth stabbings by 15 per cent and reduced murders by a quarter.
Miss Dick yesterday described Tashaun’s murder as ‘ a terrible, terrible incident’. She continued: ‘The figures, when they are put in the context of what happened overnight [Tashaun’s murder] can seem rather bald, and cold and unemotional. Each young man stabbed is a terrible thing.’
Retired superintendent Leroy Logan, who works with victims of knife crime, said police were wrong to boast about improvements when the number of murders and stabbings were still so high.
‘The Met are nowhere near getting a grip on this,’ he said.
‘The thin blue line is so thinly stretched and people are still feeling scared. Youngsters are carrying knives as a result.’
WILD WEST BRITAIN