A 22-year-old who was stabbed to death in Croydon on Friday night as a wave of violence swept across south London has been named as Lavaun Witter.
Metropolitan Police officers and paramedics from London Ambulance Service were called to a property in Wisbeach Road, Croydon, just after 8pm, and he was pronounced dead at the scene an hour later.
Mr Witter’s family said they are “absolutely devastated” and his local community is “distraught”.
His family said in a statement: “No one could have seen this coming. Lavaun was destined for greatness and he wanted to fly high.
PA
“He just wanted to have a good life and to take care of his family.
“Everyone who knows him will remember him as a legend. We are all absolutely traumatised.
“We don’t know how we are going to go on. It is just too painful. Long Live Lavz.”
One resident, who has lived in a block of flats near the scene of the stabbing for more than 20 years, said she saw police and medical staff trying to save a heavily bleeding young man on the night Mr Witter died.
She said his mother later showed up “crying and in pieces”.
The witness, who declined to be named, told reporters the man was bleeding from a deep cut to his leg and there was “blood everywhere”.
She said: “I heard someone shouting but it’s normal because people drink outside. I came down and saw two police and two ambulance guys on the ground with him.”
She said she saw medical staff make an incision in his torso, adding: “They tried really hard to save him but there was a lot of blood.”
Police said another man also suffered a stab wound at the house, but had been taken to hospital before they arrived and is now in a stable condition.
Detective Chief Inspector Kate Kieran, from Specialist Crime South, is appealing for witnesses or anyone with information to come forward.
She said: “Someone knows who did this and I would urge anyone who saw or heard anything shortly after 8pm on Friday evening to come forward, no matter how insignificant you think your information might be, it could help us piece together what happened.
“Our thoughts are with Lavaun’s family who have been left devastated by his loss.”
No arrests have been made.
Ms Kieran said the stabbing was “one of a number of violent incidents” in south London on Friday evening but added “there is nothing to connect these incidents together at this time”.
Five incidents were reported in south London between 6.56pm and 9.12pm.
Nine other men were wounded on Friday, but all are in stable conditions.
