Dapper in a suit, knife victim of 16 ‘ killed by mistake’
POSING smartly in a three- piece navy suit and pink tie, this is the 119th person killed in the capital this year.
John Ogunjobi was last night named by police as the 16-yearold stabbed to death in Tulse Hill, south London, on Monday.
His murder has been linked to a feud between local drill music gangs, Lower Tulse Hill and the Harlem Spartans.
But a relative of the dead boy insisted the killing was simply a case of mistaken identity.
They told the London Evening Standard: ‘He was retaking his GCSEs and was planning to go into engineering. He wanted to do an apprenticeship course. He played the organ. He cannot sing to save his life and he sure can’t rap.
‘The reason he was at that estate was because he was visiting a female friend. It was a mistaken identity. A matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
There was no suggestion the murdered boy had been involved in any violent or illegal activity. He went to school in nearby West Norwood and had previously played football for local community team St Matthew’s FC.
Appealing for witnesses, Detective Chief Inspector Richard Vandenbergh said: ‘We believe the victim was attacked by a number of suspects and the altercation would have undoubtedly drawn the attention of those who were in the vicin- ity.’ The teenager was the fifth person to be stabbed to death in south London within a week. He was attacked as he waited for his mother to pick him up on Monday night.
She arrived to find her son lying covered in blood on the pavement and screamed to passers-by for help.
Despite his family’s insistence that he wasn’t interested in rap music, John Ogunjobi performed under the pseudonym JaySav, friends claimed.
After his murder, a user called Spartan H posted a poorly-punctuated taunt on YouTube aimed at the dead boy’s family and the police.
It said: ‘Tulse hill tugs what where, cut your belly open like a bear, mandem gave u a scare, jaysavs fam screaming it aint fair’.
The sickening lyric was followed by a laughing emoticon.
The Harlem Spartans, as well as rival gangs Moscow17 and Zone 2, are among the most established – and reputedly most dangerous – of London’s drill groups.
Chief Superintendent Simon Messinger, commander of Scotland Yard’s Central South Command Unit, said: ‘Tackling violence is a priority and one which remains at the forefront of all the work we do.
‘Across the Met this year, officers have conducted over 21,000 weapons sweeps and taken hundreds of weapons off the streets. This work will continue.’
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has urged the police to carry out more stop and searches in London to combat the spiralling knife crime epidemic.
‘Sickening taunts on YouTube’