The family of a teenager stabbed to death in a shop today spoke of their pain ahead of the first Christmas without their “wonderful son”.
Yusuf Mohamed, 18, pictured, was knifed in the chest inside the shop in Shepherd’s Bush in June.
The Chelsea supporter and aspiring engineer was the 11th teenager to be killed in London this year, a total that has now reached 26.
As Yusuf’s family approach the six-month anniversary of his death on Boxing Day, his mother Hasna Yusuf called for an end to the bloodshed: “We are losing young boys every day. It must stop.”
The 56-year-old told the Standard: “These last six months have been the most painful I could have ever imagined ... he was shy and quiet, he worked hard at school and was never in trouble, he was a wonderful son.”
The mother-of-five, who moved to the UK from Somalia in 1992, said an increase in stop and search powers was needed to combat knife-carrying and suggested “boot camps” for teenagers instead of prison sentences.
She said: “These boys need to be made busy, because otherwise they are on the street and doing drugs and committing crime.”
Two 17-year-old boys are set to go on trial in January accused of Yusuf’s murder.
