Nottingham: victim’s family tell of ‘complete devastation’ after ‘senseless’ killing – latest updates | Nottingham

The family of university student Barnaby Webber, 19, who was killed yesterday, have paid tribute to him, saying he was a “beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to”.

His parents David and Emma, and younger brother Charlie, told the PA news agency:

Complete devastation is not enough to describe our pain and loss at the senseless murder of our son.

Barnaby Philip John Webber was a beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to.

A talented and passionate cricketer, who was over the moon to have made selection to his university cricket team.

At 19 he was just at the start of his journey into adulthood and was developing into a wonderful young man.

As parents we are enormously proud of everything he achieved and all the plans he had made.

His brother is bereft beyond belief, and at this time we ask for privacy as a family to be allowed time to process and grieve.

We will not be making any further statements, particularly in relation to the police investigation.

We are so proud to release these photographs, chosen by us as a family, of an amazing son, brother, grandson, nephew and friend.

Thank you for your understanding, and to everyone who has supported us in this awful journey so far.

The leader of Nottingham city council, David Mellen, has been on BBC Breakfast this morning.

He says there will be another vigil held for the three people who were killed in the street attacks on Tuesday.

There will be further opportunities for people to come together.I know the universities are doing something this evening and we will be doing something in the square in Nottingham on Thursday for people to come together because people feel a desperate sense of sadness and want to be together in this difficult occasion.

He added:

I’m sure there will be huge shock: it’s the end of term, they were due to have a graduation ball last night that was cancelled.

As I said, they will have a vigil at the university later on today.

For parents, from a distance, I can imagine this is a big time of anxiety, all I would say as leaders and councillors we will work together with the police to keep this city as safe as we possibly can.

A man who did not give his name told the BBC he had witnessed the two students being attacked with a knife on Ilkeston Road, at about 4am on Tuesday. He reported hearing screams and saw a man “dressed all in black with a hood and rucksack grappling with some people”.

He told the broadcaster: “She was screaming ‘Help!’ I just wish I’d shouted something out of the window to unnerve the assailant. I saw him stab the lad first and then the woman. The lad collapsed in the middle of the road.

“The girl stumbled towards a house and didn’t move. The next minute she had disappeared down the side of a house, and that’s where they found her. I’d say it all happened within five or six minutes.”

David Mellen, the leader of the local council, told BBC Radio Nottingham that those struck by the van were “waiting at a bus stop early in the morning”.

Lynn Haggitt, a witness, told Channel 4 News she saw a van hitting two people in Nottingham. “At half past five I saw a van pull up at the side of me,” she said. “It was white, all white. There was a police car behind it coming up slowly, no flashing lights. The man in the driver’s seat looked in his mirror and saw the police car behind him.”

She said the white van then drove up to “the corner of the street and went into two people”.

“The lady ended up on the kerb, and then he backed up the white van and speeded up Parliament Street with the police cars following him,” she added.

Dimitrious Lawani, a witness to the arrest, said two officers were pulling a man with Tasers pointed at him, and said he heard shouts of: “Get down, get out, stop fighting.”

What do we know so far?

Vikram Dodd

• Two 19-year-old students and a man in his 50s were stabbed to death, and a further three people injured when a stolen van was driven into them, in an early morning rampage across Nottingham on Tuesday.

• A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Counter-terror police were helping officers with their investigation but Nottinghamshire police insisted they were keeping an “open mind” about the motive.

• The two students at Nottingham University were found unresponsive on Ilkeston Road, north-west of the city’s centre, at 4am.

• Detectives believe the suspect then stole a white van, whose driver was later found stabbed to death on Magdala Road, two miles from where the teenagers were found.

• The van was then driven into people standing at a bus stop near Nottingham’s Theatre Royal at approximately 5.30am, leaving one man in critical condition and two others suffering minor injuries, police said.

• Officers said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the attacks and, during the hours afterwards, armed police staged a series of raids across the east Midlands city.

• One of the students was named locally as Barnaby Webber. The second student was named in media reports as Grace Kumar, a hockey player with England U18s.

A 31-year-old man remains in police custody – arrested on suspicion of murder – after two 19-year-old students and a man in his 50s were stabbed to death, and a further three people injured when a stolen van was driven into them.

One of the students was named locally as Barnaby Webber, the second student was named in media reports as Grace Kumar, a hockey player with England U18s. The man in his 50s has not been named.

Counter-terrorism police are assisting the investigation as detectives tried to understand what triggered the horrifying events, but with Nottinghamshire police still leading the investigation.

Police are trying to locate any phones or computers the suspect used in the hope they can shed some light on what happened.

At this stage, there is still a lot we don’t know about yesterday’s tragic events – but we will bring you updates here as we get them.