Teenager killed in gang-related violence
His life extinguished, he lay in a nearby parking area, while his assailants made a hasty escape.
In the midst of an escalating feud portrayed in drill rap anthems, a pair of assailants mounted on a bicycle relentlessly pursued and fatally stabbed a youth. The court proceedings revealed that Michael Lebbie, 20, and Melvis Mariano, 23, stand accused in the harrowing slaying of Kamal Nuur, 19, in Islington, north London.
The impetus behind this tragic event was entwined with the violent confrontations between two antagonistic gang factions: the 51st and the 71st, as elucidated in the Old Bailey.
Referred to as Dirtz, Mr. Nuur was purportedly aligned with the 71st and was entrenched in the realm of narcotics exchange. In 2018, he had been compelled to relocate to Birmingham subsequent to a vicious stabbing incident, which was concomitantly accompanied by an assault on his familial abode, according to statements presented before the jury.
He was undoubtably murdered in an attack by the two individuals who arrived on the bike and chased him into the alleyway and the real issue for you is the identity of the attackers
Prosecutor Charlotte Newell KC
In the proximity of his demise, Mr. Nuur had been declared as absent by his kin upon his reentry to the metropolis.
Precisely anterior to 8 o’clock in the evening on September 14, 2020, he encountered two males astride a bicycle. They pursued him relentlessly, leading him into a narrow passage that emptied onto North Road. There, he fell victim to eight grievous stab wounds, delineated prosecutor Charlotte Newell KC.
His life extinguished, he lay in a nearby parking area, while his assailants made a hasty escape.
Ms. Newell expounded to the jurors: “Without a doubt, he met his end in a ruthless assault orchestrated by these two individuals who arrived on the bicycle and relentlessly pursued him into the alleyway. The pivotal issue at hand is to discern the identity of these assailants.”
Lebbie and Mariano purportedly held affiliations with the 51st. Their movements were tracked through a meticulous analysis of CCTV footage and cell site data both before and after the heinous act.
Ms. Newell delineated a succession of perilous encounters, encompassing both fatal and non-lethal altercations, between the two opposing factions. Among these accounts was an episode in March of 2019, when Lebbie was subjected to a hit-and-run, followed by a stabbing, adjacent to the Regents Park Estate in the northwestern expanse of London.
It was disclosed to jurors that the Agar Grove faction, affiliated with the 71st coalition, claimed accountability for the assault through drill music.
Mr. Nuur found himself targeted in close proximity to the locale where another drill video had been uploaded to YouTube merely seven weeks prior.
This particular video, filmed in the vicinity of North Road, provocatively taunted the 51st faction regarding the tragic incidents involving Alex Smith and Calvin Bungisa in 2019, as detailed in court.
Mariano, hailing from Kentish Town in the northern expanse of London, and Lebbie, a resident of Ilford in the eastern quarters of the city, have both entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of Mr. Nuur’s demise.
Co-defendant Abby Lowne, aged 20, has refuted the allegations of aiding a perpetrator by facilitating Mariano’s departure from the scene subsequent to the stabbing.
Furthermore, she stands accused of non-compliance with a request to furnish the Pin for her mobile phone.
The trial at the venerable Old Bailey courthouse is set to persist.
