As knife and gun crime rates continues to rise, police still pursue Matthew Kitandwe’s killers one year on from his tragic death.
Police are working with Crimestoppers, who are offering a reward to anyone with information about Matthew’s death on June 21 last year in Battersea,.
Police we called to outside a block of flats on Wayford Street, SW11 by the London Ambulance Service after reports that a man had been stabbed.
Matthew, 18 and a student at South Thames College, was pronounced dead at the scene, with his mother witnessing his final moments.
Detective Chief Inspector Sam Price, Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: “A year on from the murder, we have found no evidence to suggest that Matthew was affiliated to gangs or to crime, and we have found nothing that indicates a motive for his murder.”
He continued: “This appears to have been a senseless attack on a young man and Matthew’s family has been left devastated; they rightly deserve to know what led to his death.”
Independent charity, Crimestoppers will give a reward of £10,000 for information that leads to an arrest and a conviction in connection with Matthew’s death.
The appeal comes days after a man, was shot to death in the passenger seat of a car in Croydon.
Tinodiwanashe Makwanya, 24, was killed on June 9 after a motorcyclist pulled up alongside the car and fired shots in to his vehicle.
The car driver, who also suffered minor injuries, took Mr Makwanya to hospital but he died on arrival.
Mr Makwanya’s death comes after recently released statistics show a rise in gun and knife crime in south west London.
In the past year a high number of fatalities have been recorded in relation to gun and knife crime.
With the exception of two taking place in a residential home, the victims were all killed in the streets.
The Met statistics show that over the past year gun offences have increased by 42% and knife crime has increased by 24%.
The majority of the are not thought to be gang related but young people are some of the worst affected.
In April Met commissioner Cressida Dick told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “The figures worry me.
“I want to bear down across the wide spectrum of violent crime.
“If it is the case that gun crime and knife crime are going up, that is of huge concern to me and it will mark out my commissionership trying to bear down on violence in general and those two crimes in particular.”
12 people have been killed in the south west region of London, and surrounding areas.
Among them was Mahamed Hassan, 17, who was stabbed to death on the York Road estate in Battersea after cycling from a party.
An estate resident said: “It’s terrible you know, the young kids killing each other, I was away on business when it happened, but when I heard I just thought it’s terrible you know.
“I’ve lived here for over 30 years and it’s been like this in the past year.”
Other victims of knife and gun crime in south west London this year include Abdullah Hammia, Bjorn Brown, Malachi Brooks and Kyle Maher.
