Ashish Nahar died of a single stab wound to the heart after he was attacked while sitting on a bench in Jubilee Park, Bedford in June last year. He was 25.
A 16-year-old boy was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 14-and-a-half years.
Now his family has spoken out about the devastating impact of knife crime in a short film as part of the county’s Just Drop It campaign.
A 16-year-old boy was convicted of his murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 14-and-a-half years.
Now his family has spoken out about the devastating impact of knife crime in a short film as part of the county’s Just Drop It campaign.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 I hope that people who carry knives watch this.
00:06 That's my purpose for doing this.
00:09 Go on then.
00:14 [Music]
00:25 Ashish was mischievous, fun, loving, excitable, always smiling.
00:34 Yeah, happy, happy chappy.
00:36 He was that guy, you know, just caring, loving person.
00:39 You know, I'd say to this day there's not anyone I'll ever meet in my life that'll ever match him.
00:45 You know, we were like brothers, literally like brothers, you know.
00:50 He was just so caring and loving.
00:53 He'd often put other people in his own shoes, be very empathetic.
00:58 You know, he was always like a mummy's boy.
01:01 Everybody would tease him that he's a mummy's boy.
01:04 You know, so I was always saying to Ashish, I go, you know, I don't know how long I'm going to live now.
01:08 You know, at the end of the day, you should start doing things yourself.
01:11 Stop relying on me.
01:13 And, you know, his words were to me, Mum, I'd rather go before you.
01:20 I won't be able to handle it if you win.
01:23 He passed away on the 29th of June last year, stabbed in the heart.
01:29 Um...
01:31 Oh...
01:35 (SIGHS)
01:37 # Listen to your heart
01:41 # I know you all miss me when I'm gone
01:43 # That's why I want you to listen to this song
01:46 # I know I've done a lot of things wrong
01:48 # But please, I want to leave the path that I'm on... #
01:51 He was into his music, so he started rapping a few years ago.
01:56 He had a love for dogs. He'd bought himself a dog.
01:59 He wanted to go into dog training.
02:01 They were his main passions, and of course family.
02:05 He was very family-orientated.
02:07 All he wanted to do was live a normal life,
02:09 get to work, supply for his family. That's all he wanted to do.
02:12 He would look for work, he would try his best,
02:15 because my mum is really actually so tough out there.
02:19 But then he was involved in drugs, dealing, but he turned his life around.
02:24 He was basically looking for work, going out, enjoying himself.
02:29 He was taking time out to tell his friends
02:32 that you could lock and turn your lives around as well.
02:36 And he was saying how he would like to help people coming out of prison
02:41 who genuinely want to turn their lives around.
02:44 Yeah, I remember that day well.
02:48 I was at home that day in the morning.
02:51 He got up for work, he was getting ready.
02:54 I could hear the hustling, Russell's at home.
02:57 He left for work, I didn't even turn around to see him.
03:00 I would have seen him for the last time.
03:03 But you don't think that it's going to be the last time you see your child.
03:07 We took my dog out, started trying to train my dog at Letfield,
03:12 because he's good with training dogs.
03:14 Started to walk through Jubilee Park and...
03:17 The court heard that Ashish had been walking through the park with a friend
03:24 when they asked a group of young men for Rissler papers for smoking.
03:28 As they walked away, Camille Serber rode up on a bike
03:31 and stabbed Ashish in the chest before riding away.
03:35 Completely unprovoked, he'd done absolutely nothing.
03:43 The police knocked on the door.
03:50 I think I just thought that, "What could he have done wrong?"
03:53 That's what I thought.
03:55 And they said, "Look, we need to take you and your husband to the hospital right now."
04:00 I just kept on praying all the way to the hospital,
04:04 "Please, God, hope nothing's wrong.
04:07 "My son's just turned his life around, he's been doing really well."
04:11 They came out and told us at 9.50, I think it was...
04:16 ..that they couldn't save him.
04:21 I still wish I could wake up from that nightmare.
04:24 But it's not a nightmare, it's reality, it's what's actually happened.
04:30 I have lost my son.
04:33 It's not just the victim that's left.
04:43 It's the family that gets affected,
04:45 the close people to that person that gets affected.
04:48 Friends, like Josh was with him on the day.
04:52 Since he's gone, I don't really go out, don't really mix with people,
04:57 don't really see people.
04:59 Distance yourself from society, sort of thing.
05:02 Just sleepless nights sometimes, just sitting up,
05:05 and you just burst into tears sometimes.
05:07 It's just...
05:09 ..it's hard. It's trying so hard not to cry, man.
05:15 It's broke me, it's broken even my family, you know?
05:18 Like my mum and my sister, my brother.
05:21 You OK?
05:25 Yeah.
05:27 It's that ripple effect, something like this has on other people.
05:32 He picked up the knife and he went and stabbed my nephew.
05:35 He didn't realise all of us have been affected.
05:39 But the biggest thing is, is that we're all affected.
05:43 The biggest thing is, is that boy, he's messed up his own life.
05:46 He's taken my nephews.
05:48 I know that he's got a young sibling.
05:50 You know, what sort of impact will this have on him?
05:54 His parents?
05:56 You know, it's not just you.
05:59 I do want things to change.
06:04 It's actually horrendous how knife crime is on such a rise.
06:09 Children as young as 12 are stabbing people.
06:13 It's getting younger and younger.
06:15 You know, that's the scariest thing, is kids.
06:18 There's no youth clubs.
06:23 What is there to do?
06:25 So, you know, one of the things is the government needs to help.
06:28 The government needs to open up youth clubs
06:30 so that the children have something to do, have somewhere to go,
06:33 other than being on the streets and getting involved with the wrong crowd.
06:38 Sometimes it hits me that he's not here anymore.
06:42 I could look at his photograph and I just gasp for breath,
06:46 thinking that I'm never going to see him again.
06:49 That pain of losing him and missing him,
06:54 I'm hoping slowly it will become less and less.
06:58 And one may think that's horrible to say, but that's the thing.
07:05 It's because that pain of missing him is just so much.
07:09 Parents, just the way they talk to their child about strangers,
07:18 they need to start talking to their children about knife crime
07:21 and the severity of it.
07:23 Help them.
07:24 They're kids.
07:26 Everyone gets misled. You, we were misled once.
07:29 How do they get their child that support
07:33 to then put that knife down?
07:36 It just doesn't make no sense to me to carry a knife.
07:39 I would never do that.
07:41 Same with a sheath, never. Not even worth it.
07:43 It's never worth it.
07:45 When you pick up that knife, you think it might protect you.
07:48 It's not going to protect you.
07:51 Just drop the knife.
07:54 [♪♪]
07:58 [♪♪]
08:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]