A 12-year-old boy who was fatally stabbed while walking home from school in Birmingham has been named as Leo Ross.
A 14-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder, with police confirming he is also being held in relation to an assault on an elderly woman two days earlier.
West Midlands police said Leo was found by a member of the public on Tuesday afternoon after being stabbed in the stomach and was taken to hospital. He died from his injuries that evening.
Diane Henson, the executive headteacher of Christ Church C of E secondary academy, where Leo was a pupil, said he was “a lively and happy young man.
“He had many very good friends, who he absolutely adored, and they adored him,” she said. “He was just a lovely and bright member of the school community.
“We’re supporting the children at school and are opening a book of condolence with the family’s permission.”
The incident happened at about 3.40pm in a pathway through woodland and under a railway line that is used as a shortcut by many children walking home from school. Residents say the area has been plagued by antisocial behaviour in recent months.
The 14-year-old boy in custody is also being held on suspicion of assaulting an 80-year-old woman in the same area on Sunday. Police said they were keeping an “open mind” on whether there would be further arrests in relation to Leo’s death.
Speaking at the police cordon on Scribers Lane in Hall Green, Ch Supt Richard North said: “This was obviously a very disturbing incident, absolutely traumatic for the community and I really do understand people’s concerns.”
He said there had been many people in the vicinity at the time of the incident, which happened shortly after nearby schools had finished for the day.
“It was a chaotic and absolutely traumatic scene. We’re supporting the witnesses through that. It was incredibly distressing for them and, like the officers and the paramedics who arrived, they did everything they could,” he said.
Detectives do not believe that Leo knew his attacker, and are investigating whether he was stabbed while trying to flee.
They are searching for the murder weapon and both Leo and the child arrested are believed to have lived close to the scene of the attack.
A member of the Leo’s family described him as “the most beautiful, kind child” and “the nicest kid you would meet”.
In a statement given to the BBC, they said he was “funny, sweet and had not one aggressive bone in his body”, and had been walking a 10-minute route home at the time.
One resident, who asked not to be named, said Leo was a “very quiet child”.
“It’s a tragedy, it’s beyond words,” he said. “I saw the air ambulance land in the field behind our house, so we wondering what the hell was going on. Then we saw someone being brought out on a stretcher.
“It’s just awful. A child went to school yesterday and the mother was expecting the child to go home.”
Allie Litherland, who has an allotment in the area near to where the stabbing took place, said she had heard of a recent incident where boys were throwing stones over the train tracks and a passerby was nearly injured, and she had heard of an attack on an elderly woman.
“It just seems to be these young boys,” she said. “It’s devastating. Anyone getting hurt is devastating to hear but it’s shocking when it’s people so young.”
When asked about the prevalence of knife crime and youth violence in Birmingham, North said: “On a day like today, it’s really difficult to talk about the progress that we’ve made about knife crime because it’s always going to look weak against the fact of what’s happened to this 12-year-old child.
“The West Midlands have made a lot of progress, Birmingham in particular, against youth violence and knife crime, but obviously in the context of today that’s a difficult message to put a lot of emphasis on.”
Police are keeping an open mind as to the motive, with one theory being a potential robbery, the other being the death followed a random and seemingly inexplicable act of violence.
The fatal stabbing happened on the day MPs were told, after the Southport murders, that a ban on knife sales to under-18s was not effective.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said Axel Rudakubana, had been “easily able to order a knife on Amazon” when he was 17 and had been convicted over a violent offence.
She told MPs: “That’s a total disgrace and it must change. So we will bring in stronger measures to tackle knife sales online in the crime and policing bill this spring.”
West Midlands police have set up a major incident public portal (MIPP) where members of the public can submit photos or video evidence in relation to the stabbing on Tuesday, and have urged anyone with dashcam or mobile phone footage to come forward.
They are asking anyone with information to use the MIPP or call 101 quoting log 3324 of 21 January.
