Grace and fellow student Barnaby Webber were on their way back home from a night out when they were stabbed to death on June 13
New Delhi: An Indian-origin teenaged university student, who represented England in junior hockey competitions, was named by the local police on Wednesday as one of the three victims of murderous attacks in Nottingham city early on Tuesday, June 13, an IANS news report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says
Grace O’Malley Kumar, 19, was reportedly with fellow University of Nottingham student cricketer friend Barnaby Webber, also 19, when the attacker is said to have fatally stabbed the duo in the early hours of Tuesday.
The police said the 31-year-old suspect, who remains in custody, then went on to stab a man in his 60s to death and also attempted to run over three person with a van stolen from that man.
“We are keeping an ‘open mind’ and are working alongside Counter Terrorism Policing to establish the facts, as we would normally do in such circumstances,” an official said.
While the victims are yet to be formally named by the police, local media reports from Nottingham have thrown light on some information around Grace Kumar — who is believed to be the daughter of London-based doctor of Indian origin, Dr Sanjoy Kumar. He is dubbed a “hero” doctor who saved the lives of some stab victims back in 2009.
Grace and fellow student Barnaby Webber, both 19, were on their way back home from a night out when they were stabbed to death at 4 am on Ilkeston Road on June 13.
Grace reportedly fled from her attacker into a front garden and tried to get inside a house before she collapsed and died, the house owner told Sky News, The woman, requesting anonymity, said she and her family were away for the night, but were told about the tragedy on Wednesday morning.
Grace “passed on our doorstep” and the house needed to be cleaned “before we can even see it because it was such a horrible sight,” the 28-year-old woman told Sky News.
The council also came over, she said, adding that they got into the house through the backdoor “because there was so much blood they thought someone else had died in the house”.
She said it appeared as though Grace had tried to get into the house, which “breaks my heart even more” because “if one of us had been in the house, we could have let her in — maybe we could have saved her life,” the heartbroken woman said.
“It’s so devastating. It’s just young lives.” Of the suspect, she said: “I don’t know him. Nobody seems to know him, but he lives on this road.”
A 31-year-old man, believed to be of West African origin, has been arrested on suspicion.
Grace and fellow student Barnaby Webber, both 19, were on their way back home from a night out when they were stabbed to death at 4 am on Ilkeston Road on June 13.
According to an Evening Standard report, they were heard screaming for help after they were attacked.
Chief Constable Kate Meynell said: “This is a horrific and tragic incident which has claimed the lives of three people. We believe these three incidents are all linked and we have a man in custody. This investigation is at its early stages and a team of detectives is working to establish exactly what has happened.”
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