A killer who laughed after stabbing to death a talented athlete for “looking at him” on the London Underground has been jailed for life.
Alex Lanning, 22, pulled out a fearsome military knife and murdered 20-year-old Tashan Daniel when a petty argument over the Tube tracks quickly spiralled into violence.
Mr Daniel had been on his way to see his beloved Arsenal against Nottingham Forest in the third round of the Carabao Cup when he was stabbed, on September 24 last year.
Lanning had objected to a “funny look” while on the platform at Hillingdon station, shouting “what are you looking at?” across the tracks at Mr Daniel who was with his friend Treyone Campbell.
When Mr Daniel replied: “Be quiet and get on your train”, Lanning – together with his friend Jonathan Camille, 19 - rushed over the footbridge to fight the two men.
Lanning, who said he had taken the murder weapon from the set of the latest Fast and Furious movie, stabbed Mr Daniel once in the chest in an incident caught on station CCTV cameras.
As he fled, witnesses saw him apparently laughing about what had happened.
Lanning was convicted at trial of murder, while Camille was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.
Jailing Lanning for life with a minimum term of 25 years and Camille for six-and-a-half years, Judge Mark Dennis QC said: “This was a disgraceful display of violence for which there was no possible justification or excuse.
“You are both comparatively young men, however you are both old enough and mature enough to know what you were doing and to make your own choices.”
Lanning, from Uxbridge, was on licence at the time of the murder for a previous knife attack in Brighton on a drug-dealing client.
He and Camille, from Kensington, hid the knife – which the Fast and Furious film-makers deny belonged to them - beneath paving stones in a nearby housing estate and stole towels from a washing line to wrap around their heads to disguise their appearance after the attack.
They were not tracked down until 10 days later in central London.
The court heard Mr Daniel was a talented athlete who trained up to four times a week at Hillingdon Athletic Club.
He worked as a photographer and was described as a popular young man who made friends easily and was devoted to his family.
Judge Dennis added: “The deceased had just turned 20 two days before, he was a dedicated and talented athlete and he had a promising future before him.
“His and Treyone Campbell’s lives could not have been further from the violence and aggression which they were unexpectedly subjected to on that day.”
Today, Mr Daniel’s parents called for more use by police of stop and search to tackle repeat knife offenders.
They also questioned probation monitoring of Lanning, saying: “If he was being watched more carefully, Tashan’s murder probably wouldn’t have happened.”
