(MENAFN- Gulf Times) A student who died from head injuries after being attacked in the street was struck by a car, detectives said yesterday.
Jerrell Elie, 17, had tried to get into a party in Brixton when he was chased down the street by a gang. Police said an Audi car was also seen accelerating after the teenager and struck him moments before he was found lying critically injured in the street.
Detectives today appealed for information about the attack on Saturday night as the victim's mother paid tribute to her "beautiful" son and said: "I still feel like he's going to walk through the door."
Police are believed to have found the car and two men, aged 29 and 30, have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Jerrell, a keen footballer and Arsenal fan, left his family home on Saturday night to see a friend. But he was found lying lifeless with "horrendous" head injuries 10 minutes' walk away in Flaxman Road just before 9pm.
Two neighbours held his hands as they waited for emergency teams including the Air Ambulance to arrive, and paramedics spent 40 minutes trying to save him before he was pronounced dead.
Detective inspector Brian Fitzpatrick, leading the inquiry, said: "It is likely that Jerrell's fatal injuries were caused when he was struck by a car. We are keen to speak to anyone who saw what happened, or the events leading up to Jerrell's death.
"The party was well attended and it was a warm evening with a lot of people out and about - if you saw anything at all please contact us in confidence."
A fight is believed to have broken out at the party, in nearby Gordon Grove.
Jerrell's mother Amanda Elie, 38, told the Standard he had just finished studying GCSE business studies, maths and English at Croydon College and was set to enrol at Lambeth College for an IT course starting next month. She added: "He just went out to see a mate like he always did... but he never came back.
"We are absolutely devastated. We can't believe this is really happening. I still feel like he's going to walk through that door.
"He just had so much energy. He was a magnet for everything, everyone was drawn to him. He was funny, cheeky, he always had a smile on his face and he didn't mind being the joke himself.
"He was such a good friend to everyone. He was such a beautiful boy. He wanted to be in football, and if he didn't make it as a player he wanted to do physiotherapy or some other role like that. Football was his life and so was Arsenal."
Jerrell's aunt, Debbie Elie, 50, said the family are still unsure about the events which led to his death and added: If anyone knows anything we would just ask them, please don't hold things back."
A nearby resident had dialled 999 to alert police. A neighbour in her forties, who asked not to be named, said: "I heard some kids shouting outside and came running to him.
"He was lying on the floor with blood all over him on the pavement.I checked his pulse but there was nothing."
Today friends paid tribute to him as a "big personality" who played centre forward for his school football team and in Myatt's Fields Park, and a shrine was set up where he died with flowers and cards.
l A man has told how he held another man's ear in place after a gruesome assault outside an east London pub.
Police were called to an attack in Barking in the early hours of Saturday morning after witnesses said a man was attacked from behind.
Rob Deasy, 36, said he saw a male attacker disappear in a "split second" after the victim fell to the ground from outside the Barking Dog pub.
He told the Barking and Dagenham Post: "The next thing the other guy's on the ground and I knew he wasn't getting back up.
"He just cut him open. I went over and there was blood everywhere."
Deasy said he then propped the victim up against the entrance of Bairstow eves estate agents, adding: "What happened to him was nasty € there was no skin holding the back of his ear to his head.
"I picked him up and stuck his ear back to his head. I held his ear in place otherwise it would've fallen off € I knew what I had to do."
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Police were called to an assault on a man in his 30s in Station Parade at 12.08 on Saturday morning. He was taken to an east London hospital.
"There have been no arrests."
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