Nottingham suspect ‘is West African national living in UK since teens’
Nottingham rampage suspect ‘is West African national who has lived legally in UK since his teens’: Sources say dreadlocked 31-year-old is known to police but with no criminal record – as his mental health becomes focus of investigation
The suspect arrested by police in the Nottingham attacks is a 31-year-old West African national who has been living legally in the UK since his teenage years and has struggled with mental health issues, it was revealed last night.
The investigation into the rampage is understood to be turning away from it being terror-related, instead focussing on the suspect’s mental state.
The man, who is being questioned over three deaths and the injuring of three others, is understood to have no previous criminal history but was known to police.
Just what led to the brutal attack on multiple strangers during the early hours remains a mystery.
Due to the chaotic and random nature of the rampage, counter-terrorism officers travelled to Nottingham to help with the investigation but pulled back when the facts became clearer.
The man, described as having dreadlocks by eyewitnesses, had been granted settled status in the UK after moving here as a teenager, the Times reports.
It comes after two of those killed in Tuesday’s bloodshed were identified late last night.
Police forensics officers work around a white van with a shattered windscreen, inside a police cordon on Bentinck Road in Nottingham on Tuesday
Footage shows the moment the suspect was arrested by police officers after being tasered at around 5.40am
Chief Constable Kate Meynell told reporters the force were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incidents and no further arrests had been made.
The attack began when two 19-year-old University of Nottingham students, identified as rising England hockey star Grace Kumar and talented sportsman Barnaby Webber were fatally stabbed as they returned home from a night out.
They were fatally knifed in Ilkeston Road, a student area of Nottingham, at about 4am.
Ms Meynell said the body of another man, believed to be 54, was found in Magdala Road at around 5.30am by another member of the public. He had also been stabbed.
In a short statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, Ms Meynell said the force believed the attacker then stole the older man’s van before driving it at pedestrians in Milton Street.
The vehicle was stopped by officers in Maple Street before the suspect was tasered and detained, Ms Meynell said.
Three people were injured in the van attack, with one in a critical condition in hospital and two suffering minor injuries.
Police reacting to the incident as it unfolded were certainly taking no chances, and later on Tuesday around 20 heavily armed officers stormed addresses in Ilkeston Road.
In one raid they battered down the door and questioned two students about a black man who lived there.
Bella Crawshaw, 20, a first-year computer sciences student, said she was asked by officers if she ‘hung out’ with a black man from the address.
She said: ‘We know our social groups and we know who comes in our house. Also the people we are with, they are very like ‘don’t do drugs, don’t hang out with the wrong people and stuff’.’
Two 19-year-old students and a man, said to be 54, were stabbed to death before the attacker allegedly stole the older victim’s van and attempted to run over three people in Nottingham, a police chief has said.
Nottinghamshire Police said a 31-year-old man was tasered and arrested on suspicion of murder following the deadly rampage and remains in custody.
Grace Kumar, 19, was one of two University of Nottingham students who was stabbed to death while walking home after a night out at 4am this morning
Barnaby Webber, a university student, was killed in the attacks early on Tuesday morning
Nottingham remains locked down following a terrifying sequence of events this morning
Many of those who attended the vigil were students at the universities of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent
Many of the young people at a vigil for those caught up and killed in the attacks were emotional at St Peter’s church in Nottingham
Nottinghamshire Police Chief Constable Kate Meynell speaking to the media outside Central Police Station in Nottingham on Monday evening
On Tuesday afternoon, the University of Nottingham said two of its students had been killed in the attacks – since identified as England hockey star Grace Kumar and talented sportsman Barnaby Webber, both aged 19.
The police chief said the motive behind the attack was yet to be determined, but officers were keeping an ‘open mind’ and working with counter-terror police.
Ms Meynell said the families of all the victims had been informed and were being supported by specially-trained officers.
Mr Webber is believed to have been a member of Bishops Hull Cricket Club in Taunton.
A vigil at Nottingham’s St Peter’s Church, in the city centre, was attended by hundreds of people paying their respects to those who died and those injured.
During the service, attended by mainly students from both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, those present were invited to place flowers below the altar or light a candle.
Throughout the day on Tuesday, witnesses gave harrowing accounts of the attacks, with one telling the BBC he heard ‘awful, blood-curdling screams’ and saw a ‘black guy dressed all in black with a hood and rucksack grappling with some people’.
Ms Meynell confirmed officers had carried out searches at a number of properties around the city – with cordons seen being put up on various sections of Ilkeston Road.
A terraced property on the road was under police guard, with staff at a neighbouring hairdresser saying it had been raided last year.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said ‘we’re in a very early stage of the investigation’ when asked whether the attack could have been terror-related.
She told broadcasters in Westminster: ‘We need to allow the police the time and the space to carry out all of their operational activity to determine the motive.
‘It’s right that Nottinghamshire Police are working with Counter Terrorism Policing. But it’s also fair to say that everybody and all professionals on the front line are keeping an open mind as to what the precise motive might have been.’
