Crawley murder: Everything we know so far after young man stabbed to death in broad daylight; Horsham and Worthing teens among suspects arrested

Detectives are ‘cautiously progressing’ with their investigation after a teenager was stabbed to death in broad daylight in Crawley.

The 18-year-old victim, from Crawley, was pronounced dead shortly after the incident around 3.20pm at Malthouse Road – despite desperate attempts by members of the public and paramedics to save his life.

A 17-year-old boy from Worthing and an 18-year-old man from Horsham were arrested on suspicion of murder that afternoon, whilst an 18-year-old woman from Crawley was also arrested for assisting an offender. On Tuesday morning (February 21), Sussex Police said an 18-year-old man from Crawley became the third person arrested on suspicion of murder.

Chief Inspector Ben Starns, of the Crawley Neighbourhood Policing Team, revealed to SussexWorld today (February 22) how these arrests came about.

He said: "We were called to a disturbance on Monday afternoon and we quickly established it had been a stabbing.

"Two initial arrests were made reasonably quickly. We identified through intelligence and investigation that we had a third suspect outstanding and they were arrested overnight on the Monday. Everyone we believe was involved in the incident is now in custody.”

Chief Inspector Starns said police are being supported by a ‘number of witnesses’ but further appealed for anyone with information to come forward, quoting Operation Gateford [report it online or call 101].

“That operation has been relatively straight forward so far,” he said. “But it's a complex investigation involving the tragic loss of a young man's life.

"We are cautiously progressing and it needs to be done correctly for the benefit of the victim's family.

"We are working incredibly hard to understand this incident and seek justice for the victim and his family. We are working to understand the intelligence picture around why it happened and how we can prevent further incidents in Sussex.

"There is lots of work going on to bring this to a successful conclusion and seek justice for the victim and his family."

Addressing wider concerns over youth violence in Sussex, the detective said the young man’s death came during an ‘isolated incident’ involving ‘only the people we know of’. He also pointed to social media as a key reason why fear can spread – often for the wrong reasons.

"There was and is no further risk to the community,” Chief Inspector Starns said.

“Social media plays a huge part in identifying incidents at an early stage. This can potentially safeguard people from bumping into something that is evolving but, in this example, some of the early social media posts were hugely incorrect and probably led to increased community tension and fear of crime.

“They've also incorrectly identified links to other areas of the community. That in itself is something we as a police force have to manage.

"We then have to further reassure the public and consider all the force information put out in the early stages and how that impacts on the community.

"There will be some work on challenging incorrect social media posts as they do get out of control very quickly. There is community tension management process in place now to reassure the public.

"When these incidents inevitably happen, and they are very rare, please don’t speculate and post incorrect information on social media because it can be very damaging to the investigation.”

Chief Inspector Starns said knife crime ‘remains a concern for all police forces’, including in Sussex

"It is something we are working on in the background,” he said. “It will be an ongoing focus.

"We received just under half a million pounds for ring fenced resourcing to look at habitual knife carrying and risks around young people.

"We do interventions with youth officers in schools, education programmes and we receive around a million pounds for violence reduction units.

"It's not just a police problem. It's an educational and social issue so there are other partners that can support police in preventing, detecting and intervening at the right time.

"We are developing intelligence so we can respond before an event happens.”

In recent years, Sussex Police attempted to crackdown on knife crime by introducing amnesty bins. There were set up in police stations across Sussex and people were encouraged to safely dispose of knives and blades ‘with no consequences and no questions asked’.

This operation is not currently in force but ‘will be done periodically’, Chief Inspector Starns said.

He added: “Sussex falls below the national average for knife crime. Nationally, around one per cent of our population carries knives. It is a very low figure.

"We will reiterate that, by carrying or owning a weapon in public, you are 70 per cent more likely to become a victim of that weapon that you carry.

"We urge people to surrender any weapons they feel might get into the wrong hands. We don't need amnesty bins for that to happen.

"Anyone can walk into police stations and hand in things they have concerns about.”

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