Boy, 16, is 28th teen killed this year in London
A BOY of 16 has been stabbed to death ‘over a fake Gucci bag’ – taking London to its worst year for teen killings in more than a decade.
Rishmeet Singh was the 28th teenager killed on the streets of London this year, overtaking the 27 young lives lost in 2017.
Just hours after the death, Scotland Yard announced the results of a knife crackdown, which saw officers seizing nearly 300 blades and arresting almost 1,000 people in a week-long campaign.
Witnesses said they saw the teenager being chased by a number of youths before he collapsed near his home on a residential road in Southall, west London.
A local shopkeeper told London’s Evening Standard: ‘I knew him, he was a good guy. His friends are all saying he was stabbed over this Gucci bag, it wasn’t even real. It’s terrible.’
Paramedics rushed to the scene at 9pm on Wednesday but were unable to save him.
Yesterday a picture was shared on social media showing the victim wearing the bag. Disturbing footage was also posted showing police officers battling in vain to save the boy’s life in a front garden.
Rishmeet, who was from an Afghan Sikh family, was said to have worked numerous jobs in order to care for his disabled mother, who lives above a shop close to where he was killed. His mother was later seen weeping at the scene after learning that her only child had died.
Friend Daljit Singh said: ‘He was a very good friend. It’s so sad. He was caring for his mother, he worked very hard doing part-time jobs.’
London has seen its highest toll of teen killings since a record 29 in 2008. It comes six days after Jermaine Cools, 14, died in an unrelated knife attack in Croydon, south London.