yoMAMA
08-01-2005, 12:35 PM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,1540351,00.html
7.30pm update
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Two arrested in axe murder hunt
Press Association
Monday August 1, 2005
Guardian Unlimited
Two men have been arrested by police hunting the killers of black teenager Anthony Walker in Liverpool, Merseyside police said tonight.
The two men arrested were aged 26 and 29, and were both from the city's Huyton area.
Huyton was the area where 18-year-old Mr Walker was left with an axe embedded in his skull during an unprovoked attack on Friday night.
Earlier today police also named two male teenagers who were wanted as part of the murder inquiry. A spokeswoman for Merseyside police said the men they wished to question, Paul Taylor and Michael Barton, both 19, also both from the Huyton area, may have travelled abroad.
Mr Walker, a bright and popular A-level student had been subjected to a "torrent of racial abuse" before the attack as he waited for a bus with his white girlfriend. Police have said the attack was racially motivated.
A 17-year-old from Huyton was arrested last night in connection with the killing. An 18-year-old man arrested yesterday morning on suspicion of murder was released on police bail last night pending further inquiries.
Mr Walker's family yesterday made a desperate plea for help in catching his killers. His 20-year-old sister Dominique described him as a "loyal, reliable, loving and fun brother" as she appealed for his murderers to be brought to justice.
"All his family and friends are devastated," she said. "If anybody knows anything, they have got to talk to the police."
Mr Walker's mother, Gee, drew direct comparisons between her son's death and the 1993 murder of the London teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was also targeted because he was black.
Mrs Walker, a 49-year-old special needs teacher, said: "This was an entirely racially motivated attack. This is on a level with the Stephen Lawrence case. My son was killed purely because of the colour of his skin. We cannot change our colour."
Superintendent Ali Dizaei, of the National Black Police Association, told the BBC's Today programme that the murder was "an unequivocal indication that the cancer of racism is still here, 10 years after the Lawrence inquiry".
"Unfortunately, young, innocent black children are subject to it, and I think it is a sad day," he said. "I have every confidence that the police will catch these people and put them before the courts and demonstrate to the black community that we will not tolerate these abhorrent acts of racism on young, innocent people."
Speaking last night, the chief constable of Merseyside police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said: "It is a disgrace that a young man who acted responsibly by walking his girlfriend to a bus stop at night has been brutally murdered. It is even worse when you think that the only reason for this attack was the victim's colour.
"Any murder is awful, and this one is particularly abhorrent. I can't emphasise enough the part that the community and members of the public have in helping us to find those responsible for this despicable murder.
"We are determined to arrest those responsible for committing Anthony's murder, and I would appeal to people to think about his family and what they are going though at the moment."
Mr Walker was studying law, IT and media at Carmel College, St Helens, and wanted to be a lawyer. A keen sportsman and an Arsenal fan, he had basketball trials with England and was also trying to set up a basketball team for local children.
He had spent Friday night at his home with his 17-year-old girlfriend. Shortly before 11.30pm, they walked to the bus stop outside the Huyton Park pub, in St John's Road, so she could catch a bus home to Kirby.
As they waited for the bus with Mr Walker's male cousin, also 17 and black, they were racially abused by a man wearing a hooded top standing outside the pub.
They did not retaliate, and left to find another bus stop because they "didn't want any bother or any trouble", police said. The group were followed and, as they walked through McGoldrick Park, were attacked by a gang of three or four men.
When Mr Walker's girlfriend and cousin saw him being attacked, they ran off to get help, trying to flag down passing vehicles and banging on doors.
When they returned minutes later, they found him slumped on the ground with the axe embedded in his head. He was taken to Whiston hospital before being transferred to the Walton Neurological centre, where he died at 5.25am on Saturday.
"I can understand comparisons being made with Stephen Lawrence," the local MP, Edward O'Hara, told the BBC's Today programme. "There is a certain surface comparison, but this act was random, exceptional and representative of absolutely nothing."
Mr O'Hara said the murder was a racist attack "entirely untypical of the community in which it happened", which he described as "settled, peaceful, decent".
"The overwhelming majority of people in Huyton are decent people."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
7.30pm update
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two arrested in axe murder hunt
Press Association
Monday August 1, 2005
Guardian Unlimited
Two men have been arrested by police hunting the killers of black teenager Anthony Walker in Liverpool, Merseyside police said tonight.
The two men arrested were aged 26 and 29, and were both from the city's Huyton area.
Huyton was the area where 18-year-old Mr Walker was left with an axe embedded in his skull during an unprovoked attack on Friday night.
Earlier today police also named two male teenagers who were wanted as part of the murder inquiry. A spokeswoman for Merseyside police said the men they wished to question, Paul Taylor and Michael Barton, both 19, also both from the Huyton area, may have travelled abroad.
Mr Walker, a bright and popular A-level student had been subjected to a "torrent of racial abuse" before the attack as he waited for a bus with his white girlfriend. Police have said the attack was racially motivated.
A 17-year-old from Huyton was arrested last night in connection with the killing. An 18-year-old man arrested yesterday morning on suspicion of murder was released on police bail last night pending further inquiries.
Mr Walker's family yesterday made a desperate plea for help in catching his killers. His 20-year-old sister Dominique described him as a "loyal, reliable, loving and fun brother" as she appealed for his murderers to be brought to justice.
"All his family and friends are devastated," she said. "If anybody knows anything, they have got to talk to the police."
Mr Walker's mother, Gee, drew direct comparisons between her son's death and the 1993 murder of the London teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was also targeted because he was black.
Mrs Walker, a 49-year-old special needs teacher, said: "This was an entirely racially motivated attack. This is on a level with the Stephen Lawrence case. My son was killed purely because of the colour of his skin. We cannot change our colour."
Superintendent Ali Dizaei, of the National Black Police Association, told the BBC's Today programme that the murder was "an unequivocal indication that the cancer of racism is still here, 10 years after the Lawrence inquiry".
"Unfortunately, young, innocent black children are subject to it, and I think it is a sad day," he said. "I have every confidence that the police will catch these people and put them before the courts and demonstrate to the black community that we will not tolerate these abhorrent acts of racism on young, innocent people."
Speaking last night, the chief constable of Merseyside police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, said: "It is a disgrace that a young man who acted responsibly by walking his girlfriend to a bus stop at night has been brutally murdered. It is even worse when you think that the only reason for this attack was the victim's colour.
"Any murder is awful, and this one is particularly abhorrent. I can't emphasise enough the part that the community and members of the public have in helping us to find those responsible for this despicable murder.
"We are determined to arrest those responsible for committing Anthony's murder, and I would appeal to people to think about his family and what they are going though at the moment."
Mr Walker was studying law, IT and media at Carmel College, St Helens, and wanted to be a lawyer. A keen sportsman and an Arsenal fan, he had basketball trials with England and was also trying to set up a basketball team for local children.
He had spent Friday night at his home with his 17-year-old girlfriend. Shortly before 11.30pm, they walked to the bus stop outside the Huyton Park pub, in St John's Road, so she could catch a bus home to Kirby.
As they waited for the bus with Mr Walker's male cousin, also 17 and black, they were racially abused by a man wearing a hooded top standing outside the pub.
They did not retaliate, and left to find another bus stop because they "didn't want any bother or any trouble", police said. The group were followed and, as they walked through McGoldrick Park, were attacked by a gang of three or four men.
When Mr Walker's girlfriend and cousin saw him being attacked, they ran off to get help, trying to flag down passing vehicles and banging on doors.
When they returned minutes later, they found him slumped on the ground with the axe embedded in his head. He was taken to Whiston hospital before being transferred to the Walton Neurological centre, where he died at 5.25am on Saturday.
"I can understand comparisons being made with Stephen Lawrence," the local MP, Edward O'Hara, told the BBC's Today programme. "There is a certain surface comparison, but this act was random, exceptional and representative of absolutely nothing."
Mr O'Hara said the murder was a racist attack "entirely untypical of the community in which it happened", which he described as "settled, peaceful, decent".
"The overwhelming majority of people in Huyton are decent people."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005