Murder arrest after string of city centre knife attacks
A27-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and seven counts of attempted murder following a string of knife attacks in Birmingham.
West Midlands Police said the suspect remains in custody after he was arrested at around 4am yesterday at an address in the city.
The force declared a major incident after eight victims were stabbed during a rampage spanning some 90 minutes in the city centre in the early hours of Sunday.
A 23-year-old man was killed in the attacks and a man and a woman, aged 19 and 32, remain critically ill in hospital after suffering serious stab wounds.
Five other people, aged between 23 and 33, were also injured. They were treated in hospital, with two later being discharged.
Police launched a massive manhunt for a sole male attacker on Sunday and released CCTV footage of a man they said was wanted on suspicion of murder.
But the force is also facing criticism of its response to the attacks, including why the attacker was allowed to wander the city for as long as he did.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson told Times Radio there would be an examination of police performance following Sunday’s stabbings.
Asked whether it seemed extraordinary that an attacker could go on a rampage for two hours in Britain’s second city, he said: “It does, and that is a question I will be asking once a person is in custody, then we need to reflect on the whole incident.
“What we want to know is that, if something similar happened again, how we avoid it if we can.
“Yes there will be questions asked, there will be, if you like, debriefings on the whole thing and if necessary we will have to look at any different approach we take to policing.
“There will be a thorough investigation, and we will look for any lessons that need to be learned. But as I’ve seen up to now, the police have acted very swiftly and very professionally.”
Officers said they received the first call to Constitution Hill, north of the city centre, just after 12.30am, where a man had received a superficial injury.
This was followed by a further call 20 minutes later to nearby Livery Street, next to Snow Hill railway station. A 19-year-old man was critically injured and a woman was also injured.
An hour later, at 1.50am, officers were called to Irving Street, to the south of the city centre, where a man died and another man suffered serious injuries.
Ten minutes later police were called to Hurst Street, in the heart of the city’s Gay Village quarter, where a 32-yearold woman was seriously injured and two men received lesser injuries.
Mr Jamieson defended the delay in issuing CCTV images of the suspect.
He told Times Radio: “We had to trawl through thousands of hours of CCTV footage and retrieve it from offices and buildings, some of which of course were closed.
“It did take a time. They had to find significant quality of pictures to be able to put out so people could give some sort of recognition. What we had initially in the first few hours was a very broad description of the person, but of course thousands of people in Birmingham look like that, it’s not very helpful putting out that rather broad description, we need to have something more specific.”
Following the arrest, Birmingham Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Steve Graham, said: “Officers worked through yesterday and into the early hours of this morning in a bid to trace the man we believe responsible for these terrible crimes.
“We issued CCTV footage of the suspect and had a strong response from the public. I’d like to thank everyone who shared our appeal and who provided information to the investigation.
“One line of inquiry ultimately led us to an address in the Selly Oak area this morning, where a man was arrested. Clearly this is a crucial development but our investigation continues.”