By News Editor Declan Wilkes There are reports today that the stabbing to death of a promising young footballer in Croydon was gang related. Oliver Kingonzila was killed outside the E Bar after drinking with friends on the busy South End Road, South Croydon after receiving multipule stab wounds in a fight around 1am Saturday morning. While it's thought Oliver wasn't involved in local thuggery, his attackers are believed to be gang members. The fatal knifing appears to be unprovoked. Arrests - unprovoked attack Two 18-year-olds are being quizzed after cops quickly made two arrests - one is currently free on bail. One suspect was treated for knife wounds to his hands. Witnesses saw this man running towards HUB leaving a trail of blood back to the scene of the crime. CCTV tracked the injured assailant for 400 yards before he collapsed in the street. Blood splattered on streets The 19-year-old Barnet FC footballer, described as a 'gentle giant' by his shocked friends, lost consciousness at the scene and died just an hour after he was knifed. Police sealed off the stretch of South End and a section of West Street behind the Half 'n' Half Lounge Bar. An evidence marker 'Q' and a blanket shrouded pools of blood outside Streeter Marshall Solicitors. Older brother died in February
Oliver's distraught mother will now bury her second son this year after her older boy Herve, 27, died of a suspected heart attack on the football pitch in February. Miss King-Onzila says she 'forgives' her son's killers who have the 'demons' inside them. His father received the news while in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is flying straight home to Oliver surviving younger brother and sister. Just a month after 'racist' murder
This, the 26th violent death of a teenager in London this year comes less than a month after the reportedly racist murder of 17-year-old Nilanthan Murddi nearby in West Croydon. While Croydon's murder squad try to piece together this latest fatality, locals accuse police of not doing enough to stem disorder along the busy thoroughfares of High Street and South End that lead to the town centre. Last Tuesday a 14-year-old boy was stabbed in the shoulder outside East Croydon train station after an argument flared up between groups of children in school uniforms.
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