At the centre of a sea of University of Nottingham students, the parents of Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar clung to each other for support. The huge turnout at Wednesday’s vigil was testament to the impact the students made in one academic year at the university – the two friends were excellent sportspeople, incredibly sociable and academically gifted.
Their families were seated on the front row, meeting for the first time since they found out their 19-year-old children had been killed alongside each other while walking home from a night out, in a seemingly random act of violence. The families had hugged each other and sobbed as they met.
“The love that we have out here, I just wish we had it everywhere,” said O’Malley-Kumar’s father, Sanjoy Kumar, as he addressed the crowd at the end of the vigil. “Look after each other. Look after your friends. It’s so important. Grace and her friend, they fell together.”
Webber’s father, David Webber, speaking to the crowd through tears, said he was lost for words. “I’ve lost my baby boy and I can’t even comprehend how I’m going to deal with it,” he said. “He loved it here, he couldn’t wait to come back – it drove me mad. His heart will be with you guys for ever.”
At the front of the crowd of students was O’Malley-Kumar’s hockey team and Webber’s cricket team, visibly heartbroken at losing their valued teammates. “The team is struggling, but everyone has been very supportive. No one is shying away from a conversation or a shoulder to cry on,” said Webber’s cricket team captain, Chris Heron.
“Barney was incredibly handsome – he would have loved for me to say that as well,” Heron said. “He would throw himself into everything, he was amazing. He was a fantastic sportsman, a fantastic bloke, he was there at every social, every training session, every game. He gave 100% to everything that he did.”
Among the bouquets of flowers placed around the fountain was O’Malley-Kumar’s hockey shirt, and a cricket ball bearing the message “Fly high, Barney”, using his nickname.
The vigil featured a tribute to Ian Coates, the 65-year-old school caretaker who was also killed in the early hours of Tuesday in a violent rampage across the city.
Police think the perpetrator stole a van that belonged to Coates and drove into three people waiting for a bus in the city centre, leaving one person in a critical condition in hospital.
Coates’ two sons, Lee and James, laid flowers and football shirts at the scene of his death and described their father as a diehard Nottingham Forest fan and a keen fisher.
“He was due to retire in four months – he was still grafting. It’s rocked everyone’s world,” Lee said. “He was everyone’s friend, always willing to help. Nobody deserves this, but he definitely didn’t.”
Ross Middleton, the headteacher of Huntington Academy, where Coates worked, said he was “a much loved colleague who always went the extra mile for the benefit of our children and will be greatly missed”.
Earlier in the day, the university’s vice-chancellor, Prof Shearer West, paid her tribute to Webber, a history student, and O’Malley-Kumar, a medical student, who were both in their first year of study.
“It’s a terrible tragedy. These were two wonderful, talented students,” she said, adding that she had read the personal statements from their university applications that morning, which showed how much they had achieved.
O’Malley-Kumar volunteered as a Covid vaccinator during the pandemic as she pursued a career in medicine, and played international hockey for the U16 and U18 England hockey team and Essex U15 women’s cricket team.
In a statement, her family said she was “an adored daughter and sister” and “a truly wonderful and beautiful young lady”. “Grace was not just a sister to James, but his best friend. He is completely heartbroken,” they said. “As parents, words cannot explain our complete and utter devastation. She will be so dearly missed.”
Webber was a passionate history student interested in the geopolitics of the US and China, played hockey, rugby and cricket for his university and local clubs, and was part of the Combined Cadet Forces.
His family said: “Complete devastation is not enough to describe our pain and loss at the senseless murder of our son. He was a beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to. He was a talented and passionate cricketer, who was over the moon to have made selection to his university cricket team.” They said his brother was “bereft beyond belief”.
West said she hoped the incident would not put prospective students off attending the university in future and tarnish the city’s reputation.
“It was a random act of violence. These things cannot be predicted. We do what we can to keep our community as safe as we can. But understandably, people will think, ‘That could have been me,’” she said. “I’d very much hope people will look to the positives of Nottingham and not let this deter them from wanting to come here. These terrible crimes are not the city I know.”
Many of the students in the crowd at the vigil said they had been left with a sense of unease, although police have said they are not seeking anyone else in relation to the attacks, and a 31-year-old man remains in custody on suspicion of murder.
Final-year students Isabelle Tillman, Katie Bannerman and Morgan Thomas were among the crowd at the vigil who had come to pay their respects. “You don’t expect it to be right around the corner from you,” said Tillman, who lives just off Ilkestone Road where Webber and O’Malley-Kumar were killed. “We walk back [home from nights out] and we never feel unsafe, and now I would never dream of walking back.”
“That could have been any of us,” Thomas said. “We were going to go to that night out, we knew people who were there. And we would have walked back exactly the same. We see it on the news and can’t believe it’s our uni they’re talking about.”
Daisy Forster, a community officer at the student union, told the vigil she had been “inspired and heartbroken” to see the way students had held each other up after the news, at a time when many should have been celebrating the end of exam season.
“What should have been one of the biggest celebrations for the student body has turned into one of our darkest days,” she said. “What was taken from us yesterday will never be given back, and the shockwaves echo through our student community.”
Addressing Webber and O’Malley-Kumar’s families, she said: “I cannot possibly comprehend the grief and pain that you must feel today, but please remember that you have 38,000 students standing behind you.”
