BIRMINGHAM, Sept 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — British police will charge Zephaniah McLeod, 27, with one count of murder and seven counts of attempted murder following a spate of stabbings in Birmingham City on Sunday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
“This decision was made following careful consideration of the evidence presented to us by West Midlands Police as a result of their ongoing investigation,” Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor of CPS West Midlands Suzanne Llewellyn said in a statement.
McLeod will appear in court on Wednesday over the attacks in the city centre.
Police arrested a man on Monday on suspicion of murder after the series of stabbings that happened in four locations over a two-hour period in the early hours of Sunday morning in the central city of Birmingham.
The suspect was detained in the Selly Oak area of the city and he remained in police custody for questioning.
Detectives have said the stabbings were linked but appeared to be random and were not thought to be gang-related or connected to terrorism.
Among the victims was 23-year-old Jacob Billington, who was on a night out with school friends when he was killed. A post mortem inquiry found he died of a stab wound to the neck.
Police said his friend, also 23, remains in a critical condition in hospital. A 22-year-old woman, attacked in another part of the city centre, is in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
Another man, aged 30, remains in a serious condition in hospital. Four other people injured that night have been discharged.
The attack occurred at four separate locations in the busy city centre between 12.30am and 2.30am.
One of the areas was in the heart of Birmingham’s Gay Village but officers ruled out a hate crime. They also rejected any links to gang violence or terrorism.
Birmingham is one of Britain’s most ethnically diverse cities with a population of more than 1 million, and has had an explosive recent history of gang violence. — NNN-AGENCIES
