August 13, 2024
Riots are taking place around the U.K after three children died in a knife attack at a dance class last month in Southport, Merseyside, U.K.
At approximately 11:30am on July 29, 2024, a male clad in a green hooded sweater and facemask was spotted pacing anxiously outside of a local house.
Around 15 minutes later a man walked into Hart Space Studios and began stabbing children attending a Taylor Swift themed summer class on Hart Street. As the day unfolded police launched an investigation and by 5:30pm that day, announced they had a teenage suspect in custody.
Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, died in the attack, and several others were wounded. The children were attending a Taylor Swift themed dance class, held at Hart Space Studios in the Meols Cop area of Southport on July 29, 2024.
King and Stancombe were pronounced dead at the scene, while Aguiar fought for her life in hospital but sadly died the next day as a result of her injuries.
A further five children were wounded and hospitalized.
Two adults, Yoga instructor, Leanne Lucas and businessman, John Hayes, were left in critical condition. Lucas was one of the organizers of the event, who, along with co-organizer, Heidi Barlow, saved 16 children out of the 25 that attended.
The following day, on July 30, far-right protesters showed up to Southport, attacked a nearby mosque, and left local areas damaged and resident shaken. A police van was set on fire and the disorder continued into the night.
Southport residents were left to clean up the aftermath.
These protests would spread across the U.K in the following days.
Before the suspect was identified in the media as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, 17 at the time of the crime, online users speculated about the nationality of the killer, and the motivation for the attack, with many deeming the act terroristic in nature.
According to an article by BBC disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring, a website named Channel3Now published misinformation regarding the suspect online, claiming the teenager responsible for the Southport Stabbings was an asylum seeker and a Muslim who entered the United Kingdom by boat in 2023- which is untrue. These posts were shared across social media platforms, like X and Facebook, where they gained traction and went viral.
Merseyside police have stated the attack was not a terrorist attack, however, admitted they can not yet confirm the motivation.
Although initially Rudakubana's identity was withheld, due to the fact that he was just seventeen years old, these restrictions were overturned at Liverpool crown court by Judge Menary KC, with the intention of quashing the misinformation that was being published online.
Not much is known of the suspect, other than he was born in Cardiff, and at some point relocated to Banks, Lancashire, with his family.
He has recently turned 18.
The judge decided that both Rudakubana, and his parents and brother, would be safe following the reveal of his identity, as the family have already been relocated to another area, and the suspect is being held in a youth detention facility.
Online reports state that the suspects parents came to the U.K from Rwanda in 2002 following the genocide. The dominant religion in Rwanda is Roman Catholic. They moved to Merseyside in 2013, and neighbors say they were “heavily involved with the church.”
The family lives in a semi-detached home on a street in Banks. The suspect's father is a local taxi driver who did karate in his spare time, and his mother a stay-at-home wife in the process of setting up an online business.
Neighbors described the suspect’s parents as "nice" and "normal."
The Telegraph quoted one neighbor as saying: “In all the time I have lived here, I have never spoken to the lad. I’ve never seen him out on his own.
"I think I’ve probably only ever seen him on two or three occasions. They just seemed a normal family.”
Both Rudakubana and his brother are students. The suspect had at one point joined a musical theatre group and had been involved in plays, as well as a local movie production where he worked with sound.
In 2018 he starred in an BBC advert for the U.K fundraising charity, children in need, where he played the doctor from Doctor Who. He was cast through an agency and the BBC have since removed the video from their website.
Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and possession of a bladed article- a large kitchen knife allegedly used in the attack.
In-Court drawings show Rudakubana pulling up his sweatshirt to cover his face just below his hairline. He reportedly did not speak to confirm his name to the judge, and was said to be rocking back and forth in his seat during the hearing.
According to Judge Menary, withholding the identity of the suspect was potentially “allowing others who are up to mischief to continue to spread misinformation in a vacuum.” He referred to the recent wave of troubles around the county as "idiotic rioting." The riots targeted hotels thought to be housing asylum seekers, and looting has also been reported.
Speculation that the suspect was a Muslim immigrant sparked riots and violence from the far-right across several cities, seeing mosques attacked and targeted, and clashes with police. Riots reportedly also took place during a vigil for the victims.
Rudakubana is currently being held at a youth detention center.
He is scheduled to attend a plea and trial preparation hearing in late October this year.
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