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Police hunt schoolboy's killer
19/05/2006 20:59 - (SA)
London - British police are hunting for the killer of a 15-year-old boy, stabbed to death outside his London school in front of fellow pupils and teachers.
Kiyan Prince was fatally wounded outside the London Academy in Edgware, northwest London, as pupils were going home on Thursday. He was taken to hospital but died later from his wounds.
The Evening Standard newspaper said detectives were checking "conflicting" witness reports that he may have been killed when he stepped in to break up a fight at the school gates.
Prince was a youth team player at the London Championship club Queens Park Rangers.
His death came a week before the launch of a knife amnesty and has reopened the question of whether British schools need to increase their security.
Police said a 16-year-old boy was seen running away from the incident.
QPR said Prince would be sorely missed.
"He was a great lad, a terrific prospect and it's a huge setback for everyone who knew him," said head of QPR youth Joe Gallen on the club's website.
'Staff and children are devastated'
QPR chairperson Gianni Paladini said the club would do everything it could to help the family through "this terrible time".
The school's principal, Phil Hearne, said staff and children were devastated.
"This was a lovely young man," he said. "He was looked up to by youngsters here, terribly well respected, an extremely reliable, hard working, bright young man - a natural born leader."
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said he would write to British home secretary John Reid to press for tough sentences for those convicted of knife crime.
Considering airport-style security?
"We need to send a very strong message that if you commit a crime using a knife in this city or you are caught with one in your possession then you will face a very harsh sentence," said Livingstone.
Barnet police commander, chief superintendent Mark Ricketts, said schools should perhaps consider airport-style security checks.
"(Knife crime) is getting everywhere," he told BBC Radio. "Maybe we need to start making some rather extraordinary decisions. Maybe we need the kind of apparatus you see at airports."
Barnet council's Mike Freer said lessons needed to be learnt from the killing, but that he would not want to see schools being turned into fortresses.
"It's a tragic event and our thoughts are with the families and also the school, which is in a state of shock," he said.
"We have to consider everything but I think we have to remind ourselves that schools are not fortresses, they are places of education. We need to try and make sure that our schools stay safe - but they are still schools at the end of the day."
- Reuters
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