00:01:13
ITN
Murdered teen 'caught in gang war'
Murdered teen 'caught in gang war'
A teenager who was stabbed to death in the street was apparently the innocent victim of a long-running gang war. Shaquille Maitland-Smith died after being stabbed in the stomach in St Thomas' Place in Hackney, east London, on Saturday. The 14-year-old's sister, Tahira, 16, also suffered knife wounds in the attack and needed hospital treatment. Local residents described seeing a group of around 15 youths ride up on bikes and attack Shaquille as he sat on a bench in a small park in front of his house. A friend of the murdered teenager spoke of his shock at the attack and said Shaquille had been caught in the crossfire of a battle he had nothing to do with. "I have known him all my life. Shaq's a good guy - the class clown," said the 20-year-old, who asked not to be named. "Everyone knew him but for good reasons. He was innocent. I'm just totally shocked. His family are devastated. They are very quiet and don't want to talk to anyone." The friend said a violent feud had rumbled on in Hackney between a gang from the London Fields area and a group from the E9 postcode. He added: "This isn't a feud - it's a war now. This all goes back to the (Notting Hill) Carnival 2006. "There was a fight between one of the youngers from London Fields and an older from E9. The olders saw it as a disrespect thing. "It's gone from fist fights to knives to guns and back to knives." Members of the London Fields gang would travel to E9 to attack teenagers simply for hanging out in that area, he said. "When I was younger they tried to come down and shoot us nearly every day, but people like me got older and got tired of it," he said. Shaquille's murder was likely to provoke revenge attacks, he said. "We don't know exactly who did this but we know it's London Fields," he said. "They will do something to every one of them till they find out who stabbed Shaq."
ITN | September 1, 2008
