Tributes have been paid to a “sweet and polite” boy who was stabbed to death in Islington on Friday.
Family and friends laid floral tributes and messages at the scene in Caledonian Road, where 15-year-old Alan Cartwright was attacked by three others whilst cycling up the road with friends.
Police are still searching for the Holloway School pupil’s attackers, who fled south down Caledonian Road towards King’s Cross following the attack near the junction with Copenhagen Street.
Speaking to Sky News yards from where her brother was killed, Alan’s sister Cherrie Ives said: “From what we’ve been told we know little about how it’s happened and everything. There’s not really much I can say about it.
“He was every sort of personality you can think of, really, all wrapped in one. He had his moments, but he beat them with his laughter and his jokes and joys.
“Everyone here is showing their support for us. We are all here, celebrating [his life]. It still hasn’t really hit me.”
Yesterday she posted a video of her brother on her facebook page, showing a jubilant Alan cycling repeatedly round a block of flats on a one wheeled bike alongside the comment: “To hear his laughter it warms my heart.”
Eastenders actor Booke Kinsella, whose 16-year-old brother Ben was knifed to death just down the road from where Alan was killed tweeted: “Another young boy lost to knife crime, another family destroyed. Sickening, cowardly, senseless culture. Heart is weary #PutDownYourKnives”
Other tributes online described Alan as a “sweet boy, always so polite”, while further tributes were paid by Claudia Hicks whose teenage brother died when he was knocked off his scooter in December.
Miss Hicks, 23, who has just set up a foundation in her brother Henry’s name to help other families who have lost their children posted on facebook to outline the tragedy of the deaths of her brother, Alan and 17-year-old Joe Walker – who died in a moped collision in October.
All three teenagers knew eachother.
“Just heard the awful news another boy has been killed,” Miss Hicks said.
“This world makes me sick, he had just put a picture up saying ‘RIP Henry and Joe, only the good die young.’
“Sending all our love to your family. I know Henry and Joe will be waiting for you. Give them a kiss from me.”
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