Killing outside Clapham Common Station

Arieb Malik, The Norwood School

A man has been stabbed through a window in his car outside Clapham Common Station by hooded thugs as they ambushed the driver reported to be in his 40s before ‘escaping laughing’. The man was found with stab wounds, the police & paramedics rushed to the scene however the man died of the injuries. It is believed that three ‘young looking’ thugs had were involved in this killing.

Due this past week, there has been a lot of bloodshed in London due to knife crime as one of the most contributing factors. The police were called to Clapham Park Road in South-west London around 2:30pm on Friday 29th March 2019. The victim known locally as Gavin Garraway was believed to have driven his black Volkswagen polo into a lamp post as he desperately tried to escape three men that were chasing him. According to witnesses, the three ‘young looking’ thugs approached the vehicle & after trying to smash his window open with a pair of crutches, managed to stab him through a gap in the window. A murder investigation has been launched following the stabbing outside Clapham Common Station & forensic officers were seen at the scene. Despite the desperate attempts of paramedics, the man in his 40s died at the scene making him the 31st murder victim in the capital this year. A cordon was in place as investigation work carried out by the police & other authorities was carried out.

A 23-year-old man from Clapham, said: ‘He was stabbed through the window of his car. I was there for his last moments; I could see his eyes rolling into the back of his head. None of them tried to cover their face, but they wore hoods. Just one had the knife, it wasn’t that long but it was really wide. Once they reached his car at the traffic lights, he was trapped, so he drove into the post at the lights. The men surrounded the car & tried to get inside, one of them picked up a pair of crutches & tried to break the window. There was a small gap in the window on the other side, where he was sitting, they managed to get the knife in there.’ According to witnesses, the thugs came running across the road & cut across traffic as they tried to get to the 40 year old man. They had also recalled how the man had been left in his car with his foot stuck on the accelerator. He said, the car was just sat there revving loudly. Everyone walked outside to see what was happening, but for a few minutes everyone just stared. We didn’t know if it was over. I began to walk over & I looked into the car, the window had been cracked, there was a pool of blood on the passenger side’.

Gavin Garraway (the victim) was described as a large black man in his 40s with dreadlocks by witnesses. The attackers were also described as black men, skinny & in their early 20s.

No arrests have been made yet; the police are still investigating the circumstances of the killing. A Lambeth council spokesman said: ‘The stabbing of a man in Clapham High Street this afternoon has resulted in the second killing on our streets in the space of three days. It is another tragic event, happening in broad daylight in a busy area that will have caused serious trauma to many people.’ A witness told the Evening Standard: ‘I heard a crash & I walked towards the noise & saw a car had hit into the traffic pole, but I don’t know what happened. The passenger walked into the road & the ambulance came & they tried to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the man, (CPR) the driver was sat in the seat.’

This death follows the killing of a man in his 20s yesterday evening, with two knifemen responsible that had ran into London Central Mosque near Regent’s Park to escape. The two men carrying knives were reported to have stabbed a man to death then ran into the Mosque & “washed their hands & faces’ to blend in with the worshippers as their plan to get away.

Arieb Malik, The Norwood School