A 15-year-old girl was stabbed on her way to school Wednesday morning while allegedly defending one of her friends who had apparently just rejected flowers and a love letter from the 17-year-old suspect.
“The family and [les proches] are devastated and heartbroken. “There are no words to express the noise, the tears and the sheer sadness of what happened this morning,” Anthony King of the violence reduction organization My Ends lamented to the Telegraph after he had spoken to the family after the attack.
On Wednesday morning, 15-year-old Eliyanna Andam was on her way to her school in Croydon, south London, England, when a fight allegedly broke out between one of her friends and her ex-partner, who approached her with flowers and a declaration of love, as The Sun reported.
That’s when she intervened to defend her friend before being stabbed by the 17-year-old with a “knife that resembled a sword,” according to witnesses reported by various British media outlets.
“Two of the girl’s friends were there. One of the girls tried to escape the crowd and approached her body. “Everyone was trying to hold them back so the paramedics could do their job,” Michael Fyffe, who was on his way to work when he saw the commotion on the street, told The Telegraph.
The boy reportedly fled the scene, leaving the bloody bouquet behind, before being arrested a few kilometers from the scene in the following hours.
The young girl, for her part, would have succumbed to her injuries before her family, who were informed by the teenager’s friends, arrived at the scene of the accident.
“They didn’t get to say goodbye. They were shocked and devastated. It doesn’t seem real to them,” James Watkins, a youth worker, told British media.
According to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, it would be the 16th murder in London this year.