An 18-year-old boy has been stabbed to death at a block of flats in London’s first fatal teenage killing of the year.
Witnesses described how the youth - named locally as Donovan- suffered fatal wounds during a fight on the seventh floor of the building in Enfield at around 6.10pm on Monday.
A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the attack.
Family friends today said Donovan was “always happy, sweet, energetic and smiling” and a talented musician who was looking forward to performing in a live show soon.
One said: “He was a wonderful boy and an innocent victim. He doesn’t live on the estate he was visiting. He was a good family boy. He was attacked for no reason.”
Another said: “He was always happy, sweet, energetic and smiling, saying hello to everyone.
“He loved his music and his family. He told us all too stay out is trouble. He was not in a gang or anything like that. He was an innocent victim.”
One family friend said: “He was such a good person, the best of people. We are devastated.”
They said he had a rap concert in Watford lined up and had just reached 40,000 views on YouTube.
A resident described how a boy was shouting for help after the victim was chased down by a machete-wielding attacker.
He said: “There were a group on the seventh floor, a guy pulled a machete and chased them and got one of them. The rest ran into a flat on the sixth and locked themselves in. One boy was screaming ‘my cousin, my cousin’.”
The victim is believed to be from the Hemel Hempstead area and was visiting friends when attacked.
Despite the efforts of police and paramedics, he died at the scene at Bonnington House in Ayley Croft.
Scotland Yard said the victim’s family have been notified and are being supported.
Detectives cordoned off the tower block as forensic officers trawled for clues on Tuesday morning.
Police were studying CCTV footage from the estate as part of their investigation.
Last year was the bloodiest on record for teenage killings in the capital as the toll hit 30.
Haydar Karakus, 52, who lives on the seventh floor of Bonnington House, described how his eight-year-old son burst into tears after opening the front door as the horror unfolded.
Mr Karakus told the Standard: “My boy was really sobbing. I feared this would happen — it was only a matter of time. Young lads meet, smoke and drink on my floor. It’s a nightmare. There is so much aggression out there. I have complained to the council on a number of occasions.
“Last night I heard some banging and then there was a knifing. It made me feel sick to my stomach. It’s like we live in a war zone. There were police everywhere. I said this would happen. A lot of the boys are not even from here, they just come to meet up.”
Another resident of the estate, who knew the victim, said: “He wasn’t from here, he was just ‘chilling’. He comes from Hemel Hempstead. I don’t know what it was over.”
Community chaplain Michael Radjabu, 43, described how his four-year-old daughter video-called him fearing he could be the victim.
He said: “I live on that floor. My daughter saw the police and got very scared it was me who had been attacked. It is her fourth birthday today. How terrible is that? She has to go through something like this and I come home through police lines. We have had a lot of problems with boys on that floor. This is not a nice place to live.”
Suna Mustafa, 63, added: “There were police everywhere. We are in total shock. We can’t believe what has happened on our doorstep.”
Another neighbour said: “I heard shouting and shortly after the police knocked and asked if I heard footsteps running away. I opened my door and it was like a scene from hell. There was blood and police and paramedics.”
