Haunting knife crime video of boy killed near school gates
A TEENAGER stabbed to death outside his school had talked about knife crime robbing him of innocent friends “just like me” in a haunting video filmed months before his murder.
Renell Charles, 16, a pupil at Kelmscott Secondary in Walthamstow was ambushed and fatally stabbed in the chest on Friday. He had taken part in acclaimed filmmaker Kay Rufai’s SMILE-ing Boys Project, which uses creative arts to address the mental health needs of black boys.
Dressed in his uniform last September, Renell says: “Right now, especially in this time and generation, let’s be real. People are dying out there. Unnecessary people are getting hurt. Innocent people are getting killed. And it’s young black boys just like me. We deserve a chance to show that not all black boys are just tough, hard gangsters. No matter what they have been through, they’ve always got a smile on their faces.”
Rufai’s project, most recently funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Foundation for Future London, tackled masculinity and negative stereotypes behind rising violence. His work has been showcased at City Hall and across the world.
In the footage Rufai posted on Instagram yesterday, Renell says that since taking part in the eight-week session he had “learned to open up more”, adding: “It’s okay to get mad at situations. It’s okay to be upset and cry. It’s not being a wuss.”
Rufai was contacted at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday by a teacher. He said: “I received a phone call many of us never ever want to receive. ‘Can you ring me? I have some bad news about Renell’. I had hoped he was rude to a teacher and was facing an exclusion or just something about his behaviour in school, and she — the amazing teacher — just needed advice on how to best support Renell through it — but my body knew.
“The weakness had already permeated through my optimistic guard, and my hands were already shaking. We must do better.”
A 16-year-old boy charged with Renell’s murder will appear at the Old Bailey tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy was arrested yesterday over the killing of 18-year-old Wazabakana Jordan Kukabu, known as Jordan, who was stabbed near Dagenham Heathway Tube station on Friday. Three further males aged 16, 17 and 20 have also been detained on suspicion of murder and violent disorder. All four remain in custody.