Man stabbed to death in front of thousands of shoppers on Oxford Street

[Honey]

A man in his twenties was stabbed to death in front of horrified crowds on Britain's most famous shopping street yesterday.


The 22-year-old was killed after leaving a McDonald's restaurant in Oxford Street, central London, at around 4.45pm.
Terrified witnesses ran screaming from the scene as the man was stabbed with a 4in-long flick knife.
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Police brought Oxford Street to a standstill after a man was stabbed to death


A bloody knife lying on the street could be the murder weapon



One witness claimed his attackers first stabbed him and then slit his throat. They dropped the bloodied blade on the pavement before running away.
The man's heart stopped after he collapsed near Marks & Spencer and the McDonald's, close to Oxford Circus Underground station.
Paramedics fought to revive him in front of hundreds of shoppers and commuters. He was taken to St Thomas' Hospital, but died shortly after arrival.
It was not known last night if it was a random attack or gang-related and the victim had not been identified.
One witness, who did not want to be named, said: "I just heard the screaming and then saw a couple of black guys run past us."
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The man was stabbed in broad daylight while shoppers packed the busy street


Police closed of part of the street while paramedics battled to save the man's life




Another said: "It is just unbelievable that this could happen in broad daylight. "So many people were around I can't believe those guys thought they could get away with stabbing someone. You just don't expect something like this to happen on Oxford Street."
Oxford Street in London is usually packed with thousands of shoppers (file picture)



A worker at HMV, which is opposite McDonald's, said he heard sirens, then "all of a sudden dozens of police officers came rushing out of cars and vans, closing off the road.
"I heard someone came out of McDonald's and he was set upon and stabbed.
"First they stabbed him and then lunged back at him and slashed his throat. I can't believe someone would do this in broad daylight.
"Hopefully there will be witnesses and it will be caught on CCTV. It could have happened to any one of us. It could have happened to me. It's crazy."
A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: "We were called to Oxford Street at approximately 4.45pm to reports of a stabbing.
"We sent two ambulances and two fast response cars. The first unit was on the scene within five minutes and began treatment on a man aged approximately 23 years old.
"He went into cardiac arrest at the scene and was taken to hospital."
Last night, a 200-yard stretch of Oxford Street remained cordoned off by police.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We believe the victim was in McDonald's and then came outside, where he was involved in an altercation."
The killing follows the death of 16-year-old Jimmy Mizen in Lee, South-East London, on Saturday. He was the 13th teenager to be murdered in London this year.
On Sunday, two youths were wounded in a double stabbing in Holloway, North London, and 68 young people under 25 have been killed with guns or knives since the start of the year.
The latest fatal stabbing is the third in London since Boris Johnson came to power last week.
The Mayor takes a "zero tolerance" stance to youth violence and plans to introduce electronic scanners on public transport. He has appointed U.S. police chief Bill Bratton, who cleaned up the streets of New York, as an adviser.

The moment a man was stabbed to death in front of thousands of shoppers on Oxford Street | the Daily Mail

[celeb_2006]

Ya again U.K. youth can be scarier than othaz.

[buttmunch]

I was just down there this morning. No sign of anything having happened. The street cleaners were out.

[NicoleWasHere]

England's.... like, really scary. I'd be terrified to live there, I think.

[McJag]

I know. We might have to send in the Crips & Bloods to clean 'em up.

[buttmunch]

To be honest, there isn't all that much crime. It just gets massive amounts of publicity, thus scaring the bejesus out of everyone. I'm going to venture a guess and say NYC is far more crime ridden and it covers a much smaller area.

[Sweetie]

Ban all knives.

[NicoleWasHere]

I blame McDonald's.

[buttmunch]

^^Good idea. It turns out they think it was all overa drink being thrown in that bastion to crap food so I suppose, in the end, it's their fault.

[tee-ha-ha]

England's.... like, really scary. I'd be terrified to live there, I think.

I spent more time than I care to mention in London and yes, it's scary. Even though violent crime is lower on paper there than it is in Dallas, I feel safer here...probably because here I'm allowed to pack heat.

To be honest, there isn't all that much crime. It just gets massive amounts of publicity, thus scaring the bejesus out of everyone. I'm going to venture a guess and say NYC is far more crime ridden and it covers a much smaller area.

You'd be surprised; NYC has some of the lowest violent crime rates out of all major American cities. NYC's property crime rate is 1879/100,000 and the murder rate is 7.3/100,000.

St. Louis, Missouri has a staggering 11,747/100,000 property crime rate and 37.2/100,000 murder rate.

Detroit, Michigan has a sobering 47.3/100,000 murder rate.


Top 10 cities (murder rate):

1. Detroit, Michigan: 47.3/100,000
2. Baltimore, Maryland: 43.3/100,000
3. New Orleans, Louisiana: 37.6/100,000
4. Newark, New Jersey: 37.4/100,000
5. St. Louis, Missouri: 37.2/100,000
6. Oakland, California: 36.4/100,000
7. Washington, D.C.: 29.1/100,000
8. Cincinnati, Ohio: 28.8/100,000
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 27.7/100,000
10. Buffalo, New York: 26.4/100,000
-----------------------------------------
20. Chicago, Illinois: 16.4/100,000
23. Dallas, Texas: 15/100,000
29. Boston, Massachusetts: 13.3/100,000
31. Los Angeles, California: 12.4/100,000
34. Las Vegas, Nevada: 11.6/100,000
41. Denver, Colorado: 9/100,000
47. Fort Worth, Texas: 7.6/100,000
50. New York, New York: 7.3/100,000

United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In searching for comparable statistics in the UK, I came up short. These sorts of figures are widely published in the United States but not so much in the UK and when they are, they're usually per 1,000, not per 100,000. I've seen random stats from the last five years that when extrapolated for 100k instead of 1k, give a murder rate anywhere from half that of New York to slightly higher.

The Times reported New York's murder rate as 6.9/100,000 and London's as 2.4/100,000 in 2004.

US murder rate sinks as zero tolerance puts gangs on run - Times Online

So...London is safer on paper than pretty much every American city with a population over 250,000. However, I've also seen statistics that paint a different picture...for example, nearly 10,000 recorded crimes per 100,000 people compared to about 7700/100,000 in the United States. I think what that tells us is you're more likely to be murdered in the USA, but you are overall more likely to be a victim of crime in the UK. I don't find this hard to believe, as property crime is rampant in the UK.

The UK is certainly near the top of the league table in the EU.

European Crime and Safety Survey

There are also various sources which peg the violent crime rate in the UK being higher than in the US by a substantial margin. Here are two of them:

Table 1 - Crime in the United States 2005

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs04/rdsolr1804.pdf

Basically...crime rates in the UK are probably higher than a lot of British people think they are, and MUCH higher than Americans probably think they are. Crime rates in the US are much lower than Europeans believe that they are; they do exaggerate their own risk of being a victim of crime here, whereas Americans vastly underestimate their risk of being a crime victim in Europe. However, it's really hard to say which country is the worse for crime...the UK or the US. How about we just say that they're both far worse than is ideal?

[Sibyl]

That's so weird that the man was stabbed in Oxford Street. It's always so packed there.
I've visited London a lot but I've always felt safe there, it's not so bad, it all depends where you go... obv.

[buttmunch]

Apprently he's the first person ever stabbed on Oxford Street. Also, he was not a nice guy at all. He was out on bail for two seperate charges. One for his involvement in a rape where a teenage girl was pulled into a house, raped and then had acid poured over her. The other for assault of some sort. He was also a member of a nasty little gang. Also, a neighbour of his was stabbed right after him, so sounds like a gang reprisal, possibly over the rape incident.

As far as crime stats, I'll go with tee-hee and say that neither is the ideal. Oz is looking better and better.

[Aella]

^Wow, sounds like the fucker deserved to be stabbed.

[Honey]

Update about this man, like Butt said......

Murdered: Steven Bigby was on bail awaiting trial for rape

The man stabbed to death in front of shoppers in Oxford Street was on bail for a gang rape and another stabbing, it was revealed today.


Steven Bigby, 22, had been charged with raping a 16-year-old girl who had caustic soda poured over her body to destroy DNA evidence.

He was also charged with another attack in which a man was knifed in a gang fight.

Bigby was stabbed in the chest in front of hundreds of shoppers and commuters outside a McDonald's restaurant near Oxford Circus station at about 4.45pm on Monday.

He had been charged in January, along with nine others, over the rape of a girl at a house in Tottenham, North London. She suffered terrible burns from the drain cleaning fluid and at one point it was feared she would die.

Bigby - a member of the north London gang "Tugs From Around" - was tagged after being freed on bail on the rape charge last week. He was awaiting trial.

Detectives say they believe the attack in Oxford Street was a "spontaneous" incident sparked after Bigby threw a cup of water over four men outside the McDonald's.

However, they are also investigating the possibility that he was targeted by a rival gang in retaliation for the rape or the gang attack.
Man stabbed to death in Oxford Street was on bail for horrific acid gang rape | the Daily Mail

[sparkly]

Yeah, boo hoo. I won't be losing any sleep that this creep lost his life. As far as I'm concerned, whoever stabbed him did us a favor.