Tuesday’s Nottingham tragedy is slowly being pieced together, in grief and dismay. The attacker is a african foreignerwho had been living legally in Britain since his teens, with no police record but a history of mental problems.
Until now refuses to testify or cooperate with the police, delaying the investigation. One of the hospitalized victims was this Wednesday in very serious condition.
The trajectory of a massacre
This massacre began at 4:10 a.m. on Tuesday, when students from Nottingham University, barnaby webbercricketer, and her friend and youth hockey star, Grace Kumar They were returning home after spending the night at a party at PRYZM in Nottingham, a quiet and safe city until the day of horror.
They were returning to the university dormitories on Ilkeston Road, when the attacker stabbed them randomly. First to him and then to her, that he managed to ask for help.
The man who heard her terrifying screams was the one who called the police. He watched the attack from his window.
An hour later the attacker, who was moving on foot and with aa black backpack on his backkilled Ian Coates, a mild-mannered college doorman, and stole his van. It was 5 in the morning. The murder was on Magdala Road and the attacker had his face covered by a bataclava. He was found by a student, already dead, in front of a tennis court, stabbed from head to leg.
At half past 5 in the morning, the white Vauxhall Vivaro van deliberately ran over three people, who were waiting for a bus on Milton St, in the city center. A man is in hospital in critical condition, with head injuries. The woman and another man have minor injuries.
A hockey star
It was the families themselves who called the students in the you sleep to tell them who the victims were. They were his partner. The police had warned them.
Grace O’Malley-Kumar, whose father is a doctor, one of the victims, rose through the ranks at Southgate Hockey Club in north-east London to play for her country at under-16 and under-18 level, before beginning her studies in Nottingham.
His father, Dr. Sanjoy Kumar, saved victims of a gang stabbing in Ghinhgford, Essex, in 2009.
Barnaby, his friend, was a member of the college cricket team. He was also described as a talented hockey player.
Social media posts showed she was a regular starter for the university’s first team, helping them win the British Universities and Colleges Sports Championships for 2022-23.
A Twitter profile describes Grace as part of the England hockey team. She also says that she was a member of the Southgate club and that she was associated with the manufacturer of hockey sticks Gryphon. According to a sports statistics website, she attended Bancroft’s Independent School in Woodford Green.
a beautiful young man
Webber, known to his friends as Barney and a former boarder at Taunton College in Somerset, was a member of the university’s men’s cricket team. Phil Robson, his grandfather, spoke outside the family home as relatives gathered to comfort one another. “It’s a tragedy”, said.
The Webber family released a statement and photos, saying: “The complete devastation is not enough to describe our grief and loss at the senseless murder of our son. Barnaby Philip John Webber was a beautiful young manwith everything in life ahead”, they wrote.
“A talented and passionate cricketer, who was delighted to have made the selection for his college cricket team. At 19 years old, he was just at the beginning of his journey into adulthood and was developing into a wonderful young man. As parents we are extremely proud of everything he accomplished and all the plans he had made. His brother is destroyed beyond belief.. At this time we ask for privacy as a family to have time to process and grieve,” they wrote.
“We will not make any further statements, particularly in relation to the police investigation,” they warned.
Ian the school janitor
Ian Coates, (60), a caretaker at the school, has been named as the third victim in the attacks. Coates’ body was found on Magdala Road, two kilometers from where Webber and O’Malley-Kumar were stabbed.
The attacker is believed to have first killed him and then stole the van with which he ran over pedestrians on nearby Milton Street in the city centre.
He worked at the Academy Trust and Huntington Academy in Nottingham, which confirmed his death. “He was a much loved colleague, who always went above and beyond for the benefit of our boys and he will be sorely missed,” said Ross Middleton, his executive director.
He tried to enter a hostel
The police are reconstructing the trajectory of the attack. the suspect tried to get in through a room window from the ground floor to the All Saints hostel in Mapperley Road, after killing the two students. A man, who slept in the room, managed to block your entry. No one reported the incident at the time.
But the first call was made at 4:04 a.m., when a person heard the blood-curdling screams of Grace O’Malley-Kumar. A black man with a hood attacked a couple in front of her window. The help of security cameras has been vital in these hours.
Paris, correspondent
ap
