LONDON (Bywire News)- The sister of a young man shot in a tragic case of mistaken identity has pleaded to the public and media to not see this as ‘just another black man who has been shot’.
Alexander Kareem, 20, was shot dead in Shepherd’s Bush at 12.40 am as he left a convenience store in a case of what police had called a case of mistaken identity.
“All lines of inquiry point to this being a tragic case of mistaken identity,” said Detective Inspector Wayne Jolley. “Alexander did nothing wrong that night, he simply left a convenience store. The people who did this must be brought to justice, they ruthlessly shot down an innocent man in the street with no care of the consequences.”
A white Ranger Rover Evoque linked to the crime was later found burned out in Ascott Avenue, 25 minutes after the call was made.
Around 30 people attended his funeral at the Church of the Holy Ghost and St Stephen in Shepherd’s Bush on the 29th July, with many more paying their respects at the graveside. In a moving speech, his sister Khafi Kareem, 30, said she and her brothers would have ‘taken the bullet for him’.
Speaking to the PA news agency, she called on people to think about the person behind the headlines.
“To anybody who’s seen this (in the news) and is thinking this is just another black boy who’s been shot by violence, I want to tell you that is not the case,” she said. “Alex’s life mattered, he had a future ahead of him, he’s not just another black boy.
“He had a family, he had friends, this is real.”
Mr. Kareem was about to leave for University to study IT. He was described by friends and family as funny, brainy and a computer whizz who loved playing the game Fortnite.
Miss Kareem who works as a police officer added: “My mum named him after Alexander the Great, because, even though he’s the youngest, my mum always knew this is where greatness was going to come from in our family.”
Homicides in London reached a ten year high in London in 2019, even as crime rates fell across the country. Killings linked to gangland violence have doubled over the past five years up from 17 in 2014 to 42 in 2019.
Experts have linked the rise to ten years of austerity which have seen police numbers in the capital fall, as well as rising trends in youth violence. Speaking to the Guardian, Ben Bradford, a professor of Policing at University London said. “There is definitely something going on around 10 years of austerity. It can’t be a coincidence that the generation of boys who were eight, nine, or 10 in 2010 is coming to fruition after cuts.”
Investigations are still going. We still do not know exactly why Kareem was gunned down or who his killers thought they were targeting. What is clear is that he’s another innocent victim of a rising tide of violence that is plaguing London.
If you have any information about the crime you can contact the police on 101 quoting the reference CAD224/08June, or to remain anonymous contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or online.
(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)