UK knife crime: deaths in Birmingham ‘beyond gang violence’

Community activists say months of school closures could lead to young people falling through the cracks

Residents in north Birmingham are reeling after the killing of a 14-year-old boy on a main road during the day last Monday. The teenager is one of a number of young people to have lost their lives to knife crime this year, as police try to tackle a spate of violence in the West Midlands.

On 1 May Derlarno Samuels, 17, died of stab injuries in Smethwick, Sandwell, and there were gunshots fired at a vigil for him. Jack Barry, 19, was found stabbed to death in Hamstead, in March, and 15-year-old Keon Lincoln died after he was stabbed and shot in Handsworth, in January. A number of teenagers aged 14 and over were charged with Lincoln's murder.