Two men were jailed for life today for stabbing 17-year-old Kwame Ofosu-Asare to death on the Moorlands Estate, Brixton.
Nathaniel Okusanya, 19, from Vibart Gardens, Upper Tulse Hill and Nelson Toju Idiabeta, 18, from Camberwell, chased Kwame and a friend into Adelaide Close in March. Although his companion escaped, Kwame was stabbed 14 times in the back. He died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.
It emerged during the trial at the Old Bailey that he has been the tragic victim of mistaken identity during a feud between the Brixton-based Guns and Shanks (GAS) gang and the Tulse Hill group Trust No One (TN1).
The two attackers had travelled to Brixton to seek revenge for the stabbing of a member of their own gang on a bus in West Norwood earlier that day.
Crispin Aylett QC, prosecuting, told jurors: “Kwame’s death was but a part of a poisonous and senseless feud between two rival gangs of youths in south London.”
Ofosu-Asare, a keen footballer from Catford, was a member of neither gang, but was walking to his friend’s Aunt’s house when the pair were spotted and chased through the estate. He had earlier been at a recording studio with friends.
DCI McFarlane said: “The convictions of these two young men demonstrate that the police and our community partners will work together to identify and convict those who inflict violence on others.
“Kwame was an entirely innocent young man with a bright future in front of him. He was selected at random, just because he was walking through an estate deemed to be enemy territory by these two violent gang members.”
He added: “This was a deliberate, planned revenge attack. Regardless of whether one or both actually inflicted the fatal wounds, both are equally guilty as this was a joint enterprise motivated by gang rivalry and revenge.”
Today Okusanya was jailed for life with a minimum recommendation of 20 years and Idiabeta life with a minimum recommendation of 19 years.
