The mother of a 15-year-old cyclist stabbed to death in a “senseless” street attack spoke of her anger today as her son’s killers remained at large.
Alan Cartwright was knifed while cycling along Caledonian Road, Islington, with friends on Friday.
He managed to continue cycling a short distance after the callous attack but soon collapsed and was pronounced dead at the scene later.
Police have released “shocking” CCTV footage showing the moment the teenager was stabbed in the chest as he was cycling with friends along a busy road.
Speaking at Scotland Yard earlier today Alan’s mother and sister described the Army cadet and Celtic and Arsenal fan as a “joker” who loved bikes and “wouldn’t hurt a fly”.
Fighting back tears, Alan’s mother Michelle Watson, 39, said: “He always made you laugh about anything and everything. He was just the funny one out of his friends.
“I feel angry, I want somebody found for this. I just feel numb.
“Looking at the CCTV footage it looks like he got punched, like somebody had just hit him.
“It was so quick, he just carried on riding and two minutes up the road he is collapsed and dead. It’s like it’s not real.
“I would say to witnesses, if you’ve got any sort of conscience come forward because a brother and son is dead.”
The teenager’s sister, Cherrie Smith, 21, broke down when she spoke of him not being there when she gets married.
Ms Smith said that her brother’s death has not fully sunken in yet because the family have not seen Alan’s body.
She said: “We want any witnesses to give as much information as they possibly can. If you have a little brother or sister, ask yourself ‘what if it was them?’
“If that was me, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
“People are saying ‘wrong place, wrong time’, but those people shouldn’t be carrying knives on them. The whole of his life Alan has grown up in the Cally and you just don’t expect it.
“He has always put a front on in front of me and his friends that he was like a hard man, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly, he really wouldn’t.
“I just clearly hope someone gets found for this – knowing he has been taken away from us in such an unlawful way, it’s just heartbreaking because there’s a chance someone could get away with this.
“We clearly think it was a bike robbery, but the question is ‘why’? Why has that person done that?”
In the CCTV footage, a second suspect is shown lunging at one of the Alan’s friends and knocking him off his bike.
A third is seen crossing the road and grabbing another friend to pull him off his bike.
A post-mortem examination yesterday concluded that the cause of Alan’s death was a single stab wound to the chest.
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