Team GB boxing hopeful leads tributes to London student stabbed to death in Essex

 
Tribute: Team GB boxer Chris Mbwakongo, a friend of the victim

A Team GB Olympic hopeful boxer today led tributes to a “humble” London business student who was stabbed to death in a clash with a suspected gang in Essex.

Police were today questioning six teenagers over the murder of Hassan Mohammed Ibrahim, 26, from Peckham who died in hospital yesterday.

The student, who hoped to go to university this September, had been visiting friends when he was attacked in the street at around 7pm on Monday night.

He was airlifted to hospital and underwent emergency surgery but died the following morning.

Family and friends today said he had no links to gangs and it was a “complete mystery” over why he was targeted.

Chris Mbwakongo, 21, a member Great Britain’s Olympic boxing squad who is in training for Rio 2016, said Mr Ibrahim, also known as Jamal, had steered him away from gangs on the Avondale Square estate in Peckham where they grew up.

He told the Standard: “I’ve known him since I was young. We lived next door to each other. He was like an older brother to me and I owe him a lot.

“When the young boys were dealing out in the streets he used to tell me just to stay in the gym. He helped me get to where I am today. I’m very thankful to him.”

He added: “His younger brother called me in the early hours of the morning yesterday to tell me. It was such a shock. He was a humble guy. He was always smiling and always happy.

Mr Ibrahim’s mother, Roda Hassan Kawdan, said the family were in complete shock saying : “He was a really good boy. He was kind, he loved his family. Whenever he came round he would play with his sisters, he would play with his young cousin; he was always joking around with the kids.

"I just don't know why people would do this to him. He kept away from bad people, he told people on the estate to do the same."

She said her son had four sisters and three brothers and loved to play football. He had come to live in the UK from Somalia when he was three years old and had lived in Peckham all his life.

She added: “His youngest sisters are 14 and 15, they have not been able to go to school. It is he most painful feeling, to know your son has been taken from you and you will never see him again. "

Mr Ibrahim, who had studied at Westminster Kingsway College, but had hoped to go to university to study business after taking a year's break working for an uncle’s courier business.

His brother Abdikarim, 24, who he lived with said "he was my best friend. We did everything together; I can't believe he's gone."

"He was a real family man. A lot of his friends were also his family. We did everything together. We went out to eat and for nights out. He loved football."

He said he had been visiting friends in Southend when he was attacked.

He said: "The whole thing is a mystery. He had no bad blood with anyone. He was a lovely guy, he was social. There's no reason anyone would do this. I think he must have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He said he had a girlfriend, Margaret, of two-and-half years who had been devastated by what happened.”

Essex Police have launched a murder investigation and six men, aged between 17 and 19 and from the Southend, Basildon and London areas, were being questioned.

Chief Inspector Simon Anslow said: "We are still working to establish the circumstances surrounding the murder and we are keeping an open mind on the possible motive but it would appear that this was not a random attack.

"A number of lines of enquiry are now being progressed and we would appeal for anyone with information that could assist our investigation to get in touch.”

Anyone who witnessed the incident in York Road, Southend should contact Essex Police on 101.

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