Boy ‘hunted by lynch mob’ in racist attack
Killing was like the film Mississippi Burning, says mother as she criticises manslaughter verdict
‘A system I decided to trust has completely let me, my family, my community and friends of Dea-john down’
A BLACK teenager was killed in broad daylight after a racially motivated attack that his mother compared with a scene from the film Mississippi Burning, a court heard.
Dea-john Reid, 14, was fatally stabbed in the chest on May 31 in broad daylight while on his way to play football with friends in Kingstanding, Birmingham, when a group chased him and shouted “disgusting [and] terrible” racist abuse.
The attacker, 15, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was yesterday sentenced to six and a half years in prison after a jury acquitted him of murder but convicted him of manslaughter.
Four other defendants were found not guilty.
Sentencing the attacker, Mr Justice Johnson said: “If an adult did what you did then that would almost certainly be murder and they would be sentenced to life imprisonment.”
The boy was told he will serve half his sentence in custody and time spent on remand will be taken off his term, so he could be released within three years. The court heard that Reid was targeted after his killer picked up a kitchen knife, placed it down his tracksuit trousers and then pulled it out to chase him with the knife raised in the air.
The prosecution has previously said that the attackers were heard shouting “gonna get the black b------”.
Witnesses described the moment they saw a group of males “running for their lives” as they were chased by two white men who had their tops off and were carrying large knives and metal bars.
Onlookers watched in horror as the 15-year-old, armed with a knife and wearing gloves and a balaclava, cornered Reid outside a Mcdonald’s and “made stabbing motions” into his chest before running away. Reid “shuddered and collapsed” after the attack. He was pronounced dead just after 8.15pm.
Jurors acquitted the killer of murder after it was heard that Reid had been out with his friends when one of the group was accused of trying to steal a bag by other teenagers.
Mr Justice Johnson told the killer by a video-link to a secure unit: “Whatever was done by the other group it did not remotely justify or excuse what hap
‘Do black lives really matter? If the roles were reversed, what might the verdict have been?’
pened next.” Joan Morris, Reid’s mother, said she felt “completely” let down by the system following the racist attack on her son, which saw him “hunted by a lynch mob reminiscent of a scene from Mississippi Burning”.
Ms Morris said the verdict of manslaughter and the acquittal of four other defendants had added insult to injury.
She said: “This verdict of manslaughter, whilst the others are all found not guilty, just goes to prove to me that the life of Dea-john Reid, my son, a young black man, didn’t matter.
“This only highlights the ongoing question: ‘Do black lives really matter?’.
As far as I am concerned many will say that this young man has been held accountable for killing my son, however, I do wonder, if the roles were reversed, what the verdict may well have been.
“I do believe that a system that I decided to trust has completely let me, my family, my community, including the friends of Dea-john, down.”
Bishop Desmond Jaddoo, a community activist and spokesman for the family, said outside the court: “Whilst welcoming that someone has been held to account for causing Dea-john’s death... Today we hear that the young man found culpable for his death will serve, physically, less than three years in prison.
“Clearly the family are upset. This Government has to change the law. Dea-john’s death must not be in vain.”
After the sentencing, Det Supt Shaun Edwards said: “Dea-john was a 14-yearold boy – just a child with his whole life ahead of him.
“He had no convictions or cautions, he was an innocent boy.
“To have lost his life in such an appalling way, shattering all the hopes his family had to see him grow up, is absolutely tragic.”