Boy, 14, killed and teenager shot and stabbed in ambush after grim week of East London crime

It has been a horrifying week of violence in East London after a deadly sword attack and a shooting ambush. On Tuesday morning, 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin was killed on his way to school after he was slashed in the neck and chest by an alleged samurai sword attacker who is also accused of injuring four other people in Hainault.

Marcus Arduini Monzo, a 36-year-old dual Spanish-Brazilian national living in Newham, is accused of murdering the schoolboy. At Westminster Magistrates on Thursday (May 2), it was alleged Monzo crashed his van into a fence, threatened to kill a man, broke into a home where there was a couple sleeping with their daughter, then ran up behind Daniel and stabbed him.

In the days following, floral tributes, hand-written notes and teddies have been left at the bottom of Laing Close in Hainault, as well as a painting of Daniel. Staff and pupils at Bancroft’s, an independent school, said they have been left in 'profound shock and sorrow' at his death. Another former pupil, Grace O’Malley-Kumar, was recently stabbed to death in a different tragic knife attack.

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Then on Thursday (May 2), East London was rocked by violence again. This time on Whalebone Lane South in Dagenham, where police raced to reports of a man being stabbed. The victim was shot and stabbed by a group of men who fled in three cars after ambushing him on his bicycle, police say. The 19-year-old victim is now fighting for his life, while three men are in custody.

Detective Inspector Iain Wallace said: "Three men are in custody and our enquiries are moving forward to identify the others involved. This wasn’t a disagreement or a fight, it was an ambush that has left a 19-year-old fighting for his life."

A man was also found dead on an East London estate on Tuesday (April 30). His body was discovered on the Charlbury House estate on Grantham Road in Little Ilford after lying there for nearly seven hours, the Ilford Recorder reports. At this stage it is unclear what caused his death, but police have been approached for more information.

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