A 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Jermaine Goupall, the 15-year-old who was stabbed to death in south London on Tuesday night.
DCI Tony Lynes of the Metropolitan police confirmed the arrests as he launched an appeal for friends of Goupall to come forward with information about his death.
“We understand they may be reluctant to do so, they may be in fear or concerned about the investigation or the impact of this incident,” Lynes said. “But we have trained officers who can deal with them sensitively and we urge them to come forward because they may have vital information.”
Witnesses described three people wearing balaclavas attacking Goupall just two minutes’ walk from his family home, he said.
“Clearly, what’s been described to us would have been a distressing, upsetting scene for people passing by. We’re talking about [suspects] in balaclavas, armed with knives – one described as being in possession of a machete. [There is] clearly a very violent and sinister aspect to this case,” Lynes said.
A postmortem carried out on Wednesday gave the cause of death as a single stab wound to the leg.
The victim’s family said Goupall, an aspiring architect, was in the “wrong place at the wrong time” when he was attacked.
A neighbour who knew him said: “He was a nice lad. I would see him to speak to in the street and he would come over and stroke my dog, say hello. I know his dad, Stan, better. It seems desperately sad that this can happen to such an innocent boy.”
Detectives said they were trying to establish whether the teenager’s death was linked to an earlier fight in the area involving youths armed with sticks, while others were on mopeds. It has since emerged that Goupall was present at that earlier incident.
Lynes said: “There was reference to an earlier incident around 4pm – a group of youths in possession of large sticks seemed to be in confrontation with another group on mopeds.
“What we can say about that is that we are aware Jermaine was in that area at the time, and it may well be that those incidents are linked.”
The fatal stabbing was the second in London in less than 24 hours, and followed a spate of knife attacks in the capital this year, in which more than a dozen victims have suffered fatal or serious stab wounds.
The number of children and teenagers killed in England and Wales between January and July by violence involving knives was 21.
Residents in the area where Goupall was stabbed reported months of antisocial behaviour involving gangs in the run-up to the incident. Asked if gang-related violence was an area of investigation, Lynes said: “When you get a murder like this, we are aware of tensions in the area between certain groups. There is no specific link at this point in relation to the murder of Jermaine.
“There seems to be an increase in youth violence and the carrying of weapons.
“We take the views and concerns of residents seriously, and we can assure people in the area that we are doing all we can to combat that.”
