Louis Johnson was just 16 years of age, and tragically was the victim of a brutal murder, a knife attack that took place at East Croydon station on 27th January 202 as he made his way back to his family home.
Needless to say that this cruel and savage attack on this young teenager left his family, mother, sister, elder and younger brother utterly devastated.
The background of his tragic death is illustrative of the failure of local authorities to implement safeguarding and risk assessment measures for homeless families.
Louis and his family were living in temporary accommodation provided by the council and were, unbelievably moved a total of nine times in five years across several London boroughs. The family found themselves living in a variety of different postcodes and having to change school continually, Louis faced threats of gang violence, both within schools and his local neighbourhood.
What this case reveals is that there are considerable implications concerning safeguarding issues and risk assessments for families being moved by local authorities from one postcode to another and issue we intend to take up.
Louis was making his way home that fateful January afternoon waiting for a train at East Croydon station when another youth fatally stabbed him. He died at the scene at 4.45 p.m. despite receiving urgent medical attention.
His family received a call from Croydon Council's, social work team telling them that their son had "been injured" at around 6 p.m. that day. The social worker informed the family that they had no more information other than Lewis was wounded and that they should ring around London hospitals.
The family in total and utter confusion, shock and disbelief hurriedly rang as many hospitals as possible but could not locate Louis.
The British Transport Police (BTP) who were investigating the case updated their Twitter account at 8 p.m. and yet they still had not formally contacted the family, to inform them of Louis's death.
Some agonising four hours later, the BTP arrived at the family home to tell his mother and brothers that Louis had been murdered. Unbelievably, the British Transport Police had failed to inform the family before they announced his death to the world.
The consequence of that was the family were left speculating whether the unidentified person cited on the BTP Twitter account as having died at East Croydon station, was, in fact, their beloved son and brother Louis.
One can only imagine the sickening terror that gripped the family as they frantically rang hospitals and waited for someone to tell them what was happening.
The British Transport Police apologised profusely to the family telling them they "had dropped the ball" by failing to inform his family immediately. A chilling understatement of a catastrophic error in communications and one utterly exacerbated on what was the worst day of this family's life.
On 5th March, Mom attended Charing Cross Police Station to collect her deceased son's belongings and provided the Police with a copy of his death certificate.
But this wasn't the end of this family's tragic ordeal.
On 19th March 2020 and 8:30 a.m. while the family were asleep at their home, five Lambeth based, Metropolitan Police officers smashed their way into their property, screaming "it's the police" detaining all in the house and kicking off the bedroom door of Louis's 15-year-old brother.
Mom, who is disabled with a chronic illness, could hear her younger son shouting, panicked she rushed from her bedroom to find out what was going on.
She found her way barred by a police officer. Louis eldest brother, who was sleeping downstairs, also heard the screams of his little brother but could do nothing.
The youngest brother was bundled, manhandled and cuffed by police officers, and it was only then the officers told the family, they were looking for Louis. His younger brother had been managing his grief by wearing his deceased brothers' old football shirt, and one can only assume the Police wrongly thought the younger brother was Louis.
How did this happen? Louis was arrested in 2019 for riding a stolen moped and had been placed on bail. Mom provided the Met with a copy of his death certificate shortly after his death. However, this information was not passed onto Lambeth.
So a family still grieving their loss had their world shattered as Police officers stormed their family home. The response of the officers to being told that Louis was dead was to retort, "Yeah, we've heard that one before."
It was after Mom produced a death certificate that the officers shocked began to calm down and retreat, offering apologies and condolences.
The family were left traumatised by the event that was all over in 20 minutes flat.
The Police left them shaking, crying in both fear and disbelief as they left the family home. The Police issued no paperwork, and no one contacted the family to explain. Mom had to reach out to the lead investigation officer handling Louis's murder, BTP officer Sam Blackwood to find out why they had been raided.
That day the family received calls from Lambeth Borough Commander Wingrove who wanted to come and personally offer apologies to the family.
The family, still in shock and seething with anger declined the offer of a visit because they believed any such apology would be insincere and lack any real conviction.
The following days and weeks saw the family's trauma deepened as they sought to come to terms with what had happened to them. Such was the level of fear and anxiety every time the doorbell rang, or a car pulled up at their home they'd panic revisiting the trauma of the raid.
Mum's illness aggravated by the stress of this incident became much worse. Her two sons were left deeply traumatised by this whole event.
The entire family now needs on-going therapeutic support and attempt to make sense of what has happened to them.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, requested if she could personally apologise to the family. Given these tragic circumstances, the family's grief and shock as a result of these horrific events, there were in no mood for a police whitewash and synthetic apology.
While the Police have apologised and rightly so, that's not enough on this occasion. Police apologies are viewed by many in our communities as both routine and mostly insincere.
Ethics dictate that they should pay for the counselling the family requires and offer financial compensation for the stress and damage caused. Also, the bodycam footage of the officers involved should be released to the public.
We intervened, in this case, putting pressure on the authorities to resolve their housing situation and we're glad to report the family have now been offered and accepted a new home.
The matter was also looked at by the Independent Office of Public Complaints, (IOPC) who referred back to the Metropolitan Police Service to investigate themselves.
We believe this to be a wholly inadequate response and call upon the IOPC to undertake an independent investigation and ensure community oversight through establishing an independent community reference group.
With Police community relations in London at crisis point, this case will further damage severely strained community tensions. With film footage of aggressive, and wholly disproportionate stop and search incidents appearing daily, set against the backdrop of a 45% increase in the use of the power since March, things are agitated on the streets.
Against the backdrop of the tragic murder of George Floyd in the U.S and the massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations in London, it is safe to say the Met no longer enjoy the mandate of policing with consent regarding the African and Caribbean communities of London.
And in addition Harinegy, Police recently tasered a black boy climbing a wall who the fell and broke his back. The local community is seething with anger as a result.
The Mayor and the MPS have been intensely lobbied and advised by several key community individuals of theses rising tension across the capital. As a former Deputy Mayor of London, my view is that we are one incident away from a significant backlash. Disproportionate use of Covid19 powers and the massive rise in the use of stop and search, use of section 60 stops and have gravely exacerbated community tension, and people are angry.
African and Caribbean communities, according to the Mets own public confidence survey has recorded the lowest level of expressed public confidence since records began.
The Mayor alongside local authorities like Lambeth, (the borough that has the lowest level of community confidence in the Met of all the African and Caribbean communities in London) Haringey, Hackney, Southwark, Brent, Croydon, Lewisham and Newham must now engage with local communities in co-producing a new framework for police accountability and improving community confidence.
Failure to do so would constitute a catastrophic failure of leadership that will come at an enormous cost to the capital.
A new police-community compact based on agreed community demands should be developed, setting out a new way forward. Any unilaterally top-down imposed political strategies/solutions will ultimately fail.
It is in the detail of how the Met and IOPC respond to incidents such as Louis Johnson family, and the many other events now recorded on film that will set the tone for what happens next. Let us hope good sense prevails.
London's immediate fate as we head towards the summer now fate hangs in the balance.
