Boy, 15, knifed to death in ambush at the school gates
Classmates’ horror over ‘senseless attack’
A BOY of 15 was pinned down and stabbed to death outside his school gates.
Classmates watched in horror as Khayri Mclean was murdered in the ‘ senseless attack’ moments after finishing class on Wednesday.
His attacker, who was wearing a balaclava and is thought to have been lying in wait in an alley, fled the scene leaving him in a pool of blood.
Teachers desperately tried to resuscitate the youngster, whose distraught mother Marcia, 46, also raced to the scene. Paramedics took him to hospital but his life could not be saved.
Police launched a murder inquiry and early yesterday arrested a 16-year-old boy in the Bradley area of Huddersfield – around 1½miles from where the attack took place. Last night they formally named Khayri and confirmed the attack was targeted.
A local mother revealed she had moved her son from the school – North
‘I saw him laid on the floor’
Huddersfield Trust – after he was approached and threatened with a knife when he refused to join a gang.
She said she had repeatedly warned the school about gangs ‘ grooming’ pupils on the way to lessons, adding: ‘The school has got blood on their hands. This didn’t need to happen. My son was nearly stabbed, I told school time and time again. I had a meeting with them, I told them about the gangs and if they didn’t do something about it someone would end up dead.’
The 37-year- old mother said a boy had been expelled last year after a knife was found in his bag, prompting the start of routine searches.
Khayri and the suspect are both thought to live in areas controlled by a notorious county lines drugs gang known as the BBD gang after the Bradley, Brackenhall and Deighton areas of Huddersfield.
Sixteen members, who bragged about drugs, money and violence in ‘drill’ music videos, were jailed for a total of 80 years in 2020 for using 14- year- old children as ‘slaves’ to sell crack and heroin in Blackpool. Yesterday Khayri’s girlfriend Shyana James, 16, sobbed as she laid flowers outside the school.
She said she had last spoken to her ‘ perfect’ boyfriend of six months via Snapchat at 2.52pm, moments before he was stabbed.
‘The last thing he said was I can’t wait to see you,’ a tearful Shyana said. ‘He was the best person ever. We were always talking about when we grow up, our futures – he was the love of my life.’
Shyana, who met Khayri at the school but had moved to a different college, said her heart was ‘shattered’
Her mother, Sherrin James, 35, held Khayri’s hand as he lay dying. Mrs James, a home carer, broke down as she said: ‘His mum was here with some of the teachers.
‘I got on the floor with them and was holding his hand, it was really scary. I was just trying to make him pull through, telling him to wait for Shyana, he was squeezing my hand.’
Asked about what she thought of those who carry knives, Shyana said: ‘I hate it and Khayri hated it as well. Gangs are getting worse around here, they are getting innocent people. It’s horrible.’
One pupil, Alfie Wilkinson, 12, who spoke to reporters with his mother, said children had seen two masked men near the school before Khayri was killed.
He said: ‘I’ve seen him about and he just looked like a nice kid and I didn’t know why anybody would want to do that to anyone. He thought it was a normal school day, going to school and then he came out and got stabbed. That shouldn’t happen to anyone.’
Ruben Duncan-Keane, also 12, said he had been traumatised by the murder. ‘I saw him on the floor,’ he added.
‘One of the teachers was trying to give him chest compressions, his eyes rolled back in his head, it was then that I knew then he had lost his life.’
Headmaster Andrew Fell said the school had been left ‘ completely devastated’ by Khayri’s ‘truly shocking’ death.
‘Our deepest sympathies go out to the pupil’s family and friends,’ Mr Fell added. ‘They have lost a loved one and we have lost a wonderful student from our school community.’
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said the 16- year- old remained in custody. Detective Superintendent Marc Bowes described Khayri’s death as a ‘senseless loss of a young life’.
Chief Superintendent James Griffiths, district commander of Kirklees Police, said: ‘We full realise the concern Wednesday’s murder has caused in communities, and I want to reassure residents everything possible is being done to investigate what took place.’
A GoFundMe page has been set up to give the teenager ‘the best send-off’.