Five teenagers have been found guilty after a 15-year-old boy was murdered outside his home in a “short and brutal” attack.

His mother said her “heart has been ripped out” by his death, as she was living “every parent’s worst nightmare”.

Teenager Keon Lincoln died after he was set upon by a group of youths on Linwood Road, Birmingham, on 21 January.

He was shot twice and stabbed repeatedly by other assailants, suffering eight knife wounds, including an injury to a major artery.

He later died in Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

No precise motive

Speaking shortly after his death, his mother said she had heard the gunshots that killed him.

“My first instinct was ‘where’s my son?’ Those were the first words I said.

“Then a few minutes went by – I found out that there was somebody up the road and… it was my boy.”

She continued: “The type of person Keon was, it doesn’t make sense as to why anybody would want to harm him, or take his life in such a brutal way.

“I’ve lost a part of me, my heart has been ripped out of me. How do you live after your child has been taken away from you?”

Opening the trial at Birmingham Crown Court, prosecutor Michael Burrows QC said he could not say what the precise motivation for the attack had been.

Caught on CCTV

The incident was caught on CCTV, but all five attackers “wore their hoods up” so their faces could not be seen.

Five defendants, aged between 14 and 18, faced trial over his murder. Two of them, including the 14-year-old gunman, cannot be named for legal reasons.

The other co-defendants were: Kieron Donaldson, 18, of Aston Lane, Perry Barr; Tahjgeem Breaken-Ridge, 18, of Oldfield Road, Balsall Heath; and Michael Ugochukwu, 18, of Twyning Road, Edgbaston.

They were all found guilty following a five-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Gunman lied to the police

The unnamed gunman, who was accused of firing the fatal shots, denied any involvement in the murder – but later admitted he had lied to the police.

He initially claimed he had spent part of the day logged on to online school lessons, but records showed he did not attend lessons after login in at 8.30am.

In the first four police interviews, he answered questions put to him by detectives – before changing his answer to “no comment”.

Initially, he told officers he had spent the whole day at an address in the city.

He later said he had disposed of his mobile phone so police “couldn’t see I was at Deykin Avenue”.

A dancer and ‘full of life’

Family friend Reverend Neville Popo told Sky News: “Keon was a young lad full of life, full of energy and loved life. He loved people around him, he just loved to be able to mingle and joke and play pranks – the things that kids do.

“He got on with lots of people, he was just a fun kid. He suffered ADHD but he did his best to cope with that.”

Rev Popo said Keon “loved music” and “looked at himself as a bit of a dancer”.

“I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that something like this could have happened to a young man of his age,” he said, adding: “I couldn’t understand why.”

He said the “heinous” murder “didn’t make sense”, adding: “What did he do that he needed to die like that?”

But he expressed sympathy for the families of the defendants, saying: “They are all going through it just the same as we are.

“They are marked because everybody sees their face. And they have to be able to walk within the community and hold their head up and that becomes very difficult when you know your child has been involved in something that is so horrible.”

“Time behind bars doesn’t bring Keon back,” he added.

Source: Read Full Article