A food delivery driver is believed to beLondon‘s first murder victim of 2020 after being stabbed to death.
Friends said the man, an Algerian moped rider who worked for UberEats and Deliveroo, had been the victim of a road rage attack following an altercation with a car driver.
The man, known as Taki, was found in Finsbury Park around 6. 100 pm on Friday and declared dead at the scene less than an hour later.
His friends paid tribute to the ‘gentleman’ while London’s Met police said a murder investigation had been launched.
Fellow delivery riders gathered in Stroud Green Road after the attack and a number said they had been targeted in the neighborhood by local gang members.
A friend said the victim was known as ‘Taki’, although he was unsure of the English spelling.
He added: ‘He had been in this country for the last three years but he had been here before for some years before going to Algeria for a while.
‘He had family here, his father was here [at the scene] earlier.’
Many of the riders criticized the companies they worked for and the police for doing nothing to protect them.
One man said: ‘We’ve been attacked many times here.
‘I was attacked here by people with a big machete and now this man has been killed for no reason.
‘The police do nothing. They just come, take a statement and then they go. ’
Another man added: ‘If you have an Algerian face, [the police] do nothing.’
One rider said they felt unsafe ‘101%’ of the time.
Another said he had been brutally attacked in Brixton, south London, while working: ‘It was a £ 2, bike and I said “here take the bike just don’t kill me”.
‘They still stabbed me through the shoulder.’
A forensic tent has been erected and a police cordon is still in place around the murder scene on Charteris Road close to the junction with Lennox Road.
No arrests have been made.
The driver who attacked the victim was driving a Volkswagen Caddy, a witness said, and did not try to steal his moped from him.
A friend of the victim said: ‘He was a good man. He doesn’t make any trouble – he works and he goes home and he ends up being killed while he’s working.
‘This country is getting worse.’
He continued: ‘It’s not safe to work by yourself anymore – what can you do? If someone comes at you with a knife you give them what you have or they are going to stab you. ’
Another 23 – year-old rider, who gave his name only as Paul, said: ‘Taki was a nice guy. He was a gentleman.
‘I would talk to him everyday. He always said hello. ’
The murder comes amid growing pressure on the government to take action against the capital’s growing knife crime epidemic.
There were 147 murders recorded in 2019 and more than half were stabbings.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 or tweet @METCC and quote CAD 01575879 / 3Jan.
Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 823 555 147 **********
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