Man Killed By Crossbow in Street Violence in England

Stock image of a crossbow. Capri23auto/Pixabay

A 38-year-old man was shot and killed by a crossbow during 24 hours of violence in the streets of England on May 6.

A 16-year-old was also left in critical condition after he was shot in the head, while another 30-year-old man was stabbed to death, reported the Daily Mail.

Lee Gerrard Atkins died at 2 a.m. in Merseyside on Monday after being shot by a crossbow, said the police. A post-mortem examination proved the cause of his death to be abdominal bleeding.

The police said the crossbow has been recovered. A 49-year-old and a 41-year-old man are in custody on suspicion of murder in the case. Detectives believe the victim and the suspects knew each other.

In the stabbing murder, a man in his 30s died in the arms of a paramedic in Colchester, Essex.

The teenager in critical condition was shot in Wolverhampton, and the West Midlands Police have arrested a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old on suspicion of attempted murder.

“I am appealing directly to anyone who was in the area and saw what happened to contact us if they have not already done so,” Inspector Ade George, from the force’s CID team said, according to the Daily Mail.

“No matter how insignificant you feel the information may be, it could really help with our investigation as we continue to follow forensic and CCTV inquiries,” he said.

According to the latest Home Office statistics, violent crimes in England and Wales have increased by 19 percent in a year, reported BBC.

“Society just isn’t as safe as it once was, and although the police service is doing everything within its power, we are swimming against the tide and it is the public who are being let down,” John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation, told BBC.

The Police Federation represents thousands of low-rank officials in England and Wales.

Knife Crime Hits Record High

Knife crime in England and Wales has risen to its highest-ever level, with a new report noting over 39,000 edged-weapon offenses committed during the past year.

Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Oct. 18 that the total of 39,332 recorded knife crimes between July 2017 and June 2018 represents a 12 percent rise in violent crime involving edged weapons and other sharp instruments.

Statisticians noted, however, that this figure excludes the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) numbers, with respect to which they “identified undercounting of crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument.” Including the GMP figures—undercounted as they are—the UK saw at least 41,884 knife crimes.

Meghan Elkin, head of the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice, told The Independent that knife crime has been on the rise for four years.

“There have been some improvements in recording by police but we do think this is a genuine increase,” she said.

Crimes involving knives in the UK are most prominent in metro areas.

“While knife crime remains a rare crime, today’s figures show knife crime recorded by the police in London is at the highest level since data started to be collected for the year ending March 2009,” ONS officials noted.

London Tops Knife-Crime Rankings

Knife crime in London has risen to a record level, with ONS analysts noting a total of 14,987 knife crimes from July 2017 to June 2018, which is a 15 percent year-on-year rise.

This figure includes 91 knife killings, 170 rapes or sexual assaults carried out at knife-point, and 8,363 robberies using a blade.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Metropolitan police insist they are doing everything possible to tackle knife crime, including ramping up the use of weapons-focused stop-and-search and a succession of anti-knife crime operations.

Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.