Police investigating fatal stabbing in Bristol give statement
Locals at the scene expressed their shock at another murder in the city.
Sarah Smith, 67, a business owner and councillor, said: "Its right across Bristol. This has been going on for a long time. After the stabbing of Eddie Kinuthia, the church was packed with young people.
“Bristol’s segregated, but now with knife crime it’s almost like it’s become unified.
“The thing is Bristol is such a small city, we’ve always had the village mindset so there’s not much distance between the postcodes.”
Maryam, 35, who works in education and has just moved to the area said:
“It’s a bit saddening to be honest when there’s a stabbing because you just think it’s going to create disharmony.
"It doesn’t make me scared to walk home at night because I think stabbings happen all over the place.
""But it does make me wary because I’ve not noticed many stabbing, I’ve just noticed that over the last couple of months there have been a lot of stabbings happening around Bristol. So I think what worries me is the trend of the stabbings.
"It doesn’t worry me that it’s happened in this area, because I think it’s happening around Bristol in general at the moment.
"And unfortunately, it’s always going to be for poorer socio economic areas that get hit.
"But I wouldn’t necessarily say the are is unsafe, it’s usually a very community based, lovely area.”
Mustafa Abdullah, 39, who is on income support, said: “We live across, and we received information from the police and they said someone’s been stabbed.
“It’s been six (recent stabbings) it’s really scary and feels like it's happening every day.
“It can be me next. It’s really scary. It’s getting too much - it’s really bad.
"I feel like it has got less safe to live in Bristol."
Sarah Smith, 67, a business owner and councillor, said: "Its right across Bristol. This has been going on for a long time. After the stabbing of Eddie Kinuthia, the church was packed with young people.
“Bristol’s segregated, but now with knife crime it’s almost like it’s become unified.
“The thing is Bristol is such a small city, we’ve always had the village mindset so there’s not much distance between the postcodes.”
Maryam, 35, who works in education and has just moved to the area said:
“It’s a bit saddening to be honest when there’s a stabbing because you just think it’s going to create disharmony.
"It doesn’t make me scared to walk home at night because I think stabbings happen all over the place.
""But it does make me wary because I’ve not noticed many stabbing, I’ve just noticed that over the last couple of months there have been a lot of stabbings happening around Bristol. So I think what worries me is the trend of the stabbings.
"It doesn’t worry me that it’s happened in this area, because I think it’s happening around Bristol in general at the moment.
"And unfortunately, it’s always going to be for poorer socio economic areas that get hit.
"But I wouldn’t necessarily say the are is unsafe, it’s usually a very community based, lovely area.”
Mustafa Abdullah, 39, who is on income support, said: “We live across, and we received information from the police and they said someone’s been stabbed.
“It’s been six (recent stabbings) it’s really scary and feels like it's happening every day.
“It can be me next. It’s really scary. It’s getting too much - it’s really bad.
"I feel like it has got less safe to live in Bristol."
Transcript
00:00 At approximately 8.30pm last night we were made aware that this 13 year old man was being
00:06 taken to hospital after being stabbed in Ashley Road in the St Paul's area, Bristol.
00:13 Officers attended the Bristol Royal Infirmary where a member of the public had taken the
00:16 victim, very sadly died in hospital later that night.
00:22 All our thoughts remain with the victim's family at this difficult time.
00:25 They are being supported by specialist family liaison officers and we will continue to keep
00:29 them updated.
00:30 I would like to publicly thank the medical professionals and also the member of the public
00:35 who came to the man's aid.
00:38 The Major Crime Investigation Team is now leading a murder investigation.
00:42 This work is already well underway and overnight a 43 year old man was arrested on suspicion
00:47 of murder.
00:50 He remains in police custody while enquiries continue.
00:55 We are all fully aware of the concern recent incidents in this part of the city have had
00:59 on our communities and we will work with others to make sure that appropriate support is in
01:03 place for people who need it.
01:06 Earlier today we issued more details of our operation to tackle serious violence and knife
01:10 crime and we are committed to working with our partners and communities to tackle the
01:15 root causes of these incidents.
01:19 There will be an increased police presence in the area over the coming days and I urge
01:22 local people to approach the patrolling officers and discuss any concerns with them.
01:27 I'd like to make clear that we believe the wider risks to the public from this incident
01:31 to be minimal.
01:33 We're keen to hear from anyone who was in the area at the time who may have witnessed
01:37 what happened.
01:38 If you saw the incident or have any dash cam or CCTV footage which could help the investigation
01:43 then please contact us.
01:45 If you'd like to remain anonymous information can also be reported through Crimestoppers.
01:51 Mark you mentioned the proactive campaign there.
01:54 What tangible ways do you think that's actually really going to make any difference to the
01:59 streets of Bristol?
02:00 So in relation to our policing responsibilities we need to be delivering effective and targeted
02:05 intelligence led patrols in our communities.
02:09 We need to be making people feel reassured about our presence and what difference we
02:13 can make.
02:14 We need to be delivering targeted work to deal with those people who are carrying knives
02:17 on our streets, identify them, take those knives off the street and bring those people
02:21 to justice.
02:22 Do you have any intelligence as to whether just last week you were mentioning about groups
02:30 of youths in particular in Bristol that are responding to their own child with a sensitivity.
02:35 Is this in any way linked to those, to that?
02:38 Nothing to indicate any links in relation to this incident.
02:40 If you look at the ages of the parties concerned in this, 30 and 43 years of age, we don't
02:45 believe there are any links.
02:48 We're looking at maybe 10.
02:50 I'm unable to speculate on the issues that may have existed behind the idea that that
02:56 will still be hopefully established during the investigation.
02:59 As far as you're aware there's no connection between what happened here last night and
03:02 any other recent stabbings?
03:04 As far as I'm aware absolutely not, no.
03:06 You mentioned that you're looking into groups of folks that are supporting the community
03:10 of Edinburgh.
03:11 Are you looking at a party or a member of a nice kind of instance?
03:15 Do you know any more about the three to six or six wedding at Highsbrough University?
03:21 So we believe that there were or have been links between some of the incidents that played
03:27 out over that 12 day period.
03:30 The incident in McDonald's in the horse fair and the incident in Hortley Park where
03:34 Darian tragically lost his life.
03:36 That's already been identified and has come to light in the investigations.
03:40 We're still working to identify any wider links between those incidents and also incidents
03:44 that have been part of the increase in serious violence that we've identified that played
03:48 out from 2022 into 2023.
03:51 And that's really key because we need to understand where we need to be focusing our efforts in
03:58 policing to make sure that the work that we do is targeted and effective and it doesn't
04:03 disproportionately impact on other members of the community.
04:05 I've been speaking to quite a few people here who have been told that they've now
04:10 found out it was so aggressive of them and others are walking around with knives on them
04:14 because they feel so as if to say, "Vaccine to rake us first to try and prevent people
04:20 from walking."
04:21 It's work we're doing to disrupt the supply and disrupt people's access to knives.
04:25 That's a particular concern.
04:26 We're working with our partners, the local authority and schools around education to
04:29 provide reassurance for young people particularly in other ways.
04:32 But as I said, this incident didn't involve young people, but I'm aware of the wider perspective
04:37 and context that exists in the city.
04:39 Mark, quick question for me.
04:42 Chancellor's announced his budget today of course.
04:44 In that context, would you like ideally to see the police given more funding to deal
04:48 with the root causes of this?
04:50 I'm a police officer with responsibility for policing in the city.
04:54 So of course I'd always like more police officers, more police resources.
04:58 I know it's not as simple as that, but I'm always going to want more to be able to deliver
05:02 more for the communities.
05:03 Yeah.
05:04 And what would you say to people who've seen this tonight, another stabbing on the day
05:10 the city's come together for a campaign against stabbing?
05:15 The cruel irony of this.
05:16 What would you say to people who are scared?
05:19 I would urge people to connect in the ways that we all need to.
05:23 So police, the local authority, schools, communities, families.
05:28 This is a problem that's so complex and it's creating such impact that we need to tackle
05:32 it together.
05:33 So I'd urge people to get involved in those responses so we can achieve that.
05:38 Thank you.
05:39 Thanks.
05:40 Over to you.
05:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]