Police urge those involved in teenager’s murder to hand themselves in

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Those involved in stabbing to death a 17-year-old boy in Birmingham city centre have been urged to surrender themselves to police.

Muhammad Hassam Ali died from his injuries after being attacked in Victoria Square, close to the city’s Council House, shortly before 3.30pm on Saturday.

Officers are working on the theory that Muhammad, who was visiting the city centre with a friend, was the victim of mistaken identity.

Police have declined to comment on whether more than than one offender is believed to have been involved in the offence.

Speaking near the scene on Monday, the chief inspector for Birmingham city centre, Mark Lacey, said Muhammad died on Saturday evening.

Asked if officers still believe the stabbing to be a case of mistaken identity, Chief Inspector Lacey said: “That is our current working theory… although we are keeping our mind open about that, as we do with any investigation.

“We are open to any and all intelligence or information that the public might have, that they could provide to us.”

In a direct appeal for those responsible, the officer added: “My message would be please hand yourself in.

“I know that may be a difficult thing to do, but please do so.

“The police are progressing this investigation and I am very confident that we will find any and all persons that are involved.

“For the good of your family, for the good of the family of Muhammad, I would say please hand yourself in to the police so that we can move this investigation forward and give some closure to the family.”

Describing the stabbing as a rare scenario, the senior officer offered his condolences to the family of the victim, telling the PA news agency: “Being a father myself, I cannot imagine what they are going through.

“I have a team who are devastated that this could happen on their area.

“That said, Birmingham is a safe city. We have reduced violence in the city over the last 12 months and we will continue to do so.

“Over the next few days and over the next week we will be putting (in) extra patrols to just reassure the public.

“We have no information to say something like this is necessarily going to happen again, but we want to reassure the public and also send a clear message to those that seek to conduct any criminality in the city centre that they will be dealt with by the police and by our partners.”

Detectives are reviewing CCTV and carrying out other forensic enquiries to establish who was responsible for Muhammad’s death, which is not being treated as gang-related.