Published:
8:00 AM December 15, 2021
Mothers from Havering, Newham and Redbridge joined a candlelit vigil outside New Scotland Yard in a plea to end knife crime.
On December 14, people who have lost loved ones came together to share the message that more needs to be done to eradicate it.
Peguy Kato, from Harold Hill, lost her 17-year-old son, Champion Ganda, in 2013 after he was knifed 11 times in a daylight attack outside a primary school in Forest Gate.
The 45-year-old revealed she attended the vigil for her son and to remember those who have been lost.
Peguy said: “In London right now there are so many people who have lost someone.
“When we remember them at Christmas, we know we won’t be able to give them gifts or eat with them, It’s sad.
“The sad thing is people feel it is nothing to do with them. We need to stand up and fight.”
Eighteen-year-old Kamran Khalid was fatally stabbed in Loxford on October 28.
His mum Samina said: “I’m still mourning, grieving and in disbelief.”
Attending the event to meet people who have been affected “indirectly or directly by knife crime”, Samina said they came together to “remember the people that the future needed that we’ve lost.”
She said she will continue to campaign against knife crime and added: “Knife crime affects the whole community. There are no winners with knives.”
Marian Gomoh, mum to NHS worker David Gomoh, 24, who was stabbed nine times near his home in Canning Town on April 26, 2020, said she attended the vigil to say “enough is enough”.
David’s four killers were jailed for a total of at least 101 years in September.
At the time, Marian described her son as “such a charismatic, intelligent and focused young gentleman”.
The 58-year-old told this paper knife crime “has been going on for too long”.
“We are not going to give up the fight at all.
“We are never going to give up the fight until something is done in this country about knife crime.
“It impacts communities and families, it affects everybody.”
https://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/crime/knife-crime-vigil-held-outside-new-scotland-yard-8565082