Just days after the Metropolitan Police released CCTV footage of a man wanted for questioning over a stabbing on a bus in Croydon in early June, it was announced that an arrest has been made.
Slow motion: Croydon police’s Twitter appeal issued on July 10 – five weeks after the attack
Damian Howes, aged 21, of Haldane Road, Bexley, appeared at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on Saturday charged with Section 18 Grievous Bodily Harm and possession of an offensive weapon, in connection with a stabbing on a N64 bus in Croydon in the early hours of June 4.
Howes was arrested on Friday, July 12.
The Met had issued its public appeal less than 48 hours earlier, seeking witnesses to an incident in which another bus passenger had been stabbed “multiple times” after asking another man to take his feet off the seat.
The bus’s CCTV had been available for almost six weeks before the Met released the image that led to the arrest.
This is the same Croydon police force that doesn’t even bother to turn up at a business address to collect physical and CCTV evidence when the shop has had their front windows bricked in by burglars on four separate occasions in the space of a couple of months.
This is where reports of drug gangs operating along Surrey Street market, and appeals from traders for more police patrols, were ignored until a young man was killed in broad daylight.
That’s the same borough where the council’s Safer Neighbourhood Board – which is supposed to offer councillors and the public an opportunity to question local police chiefs on their conduct – has not met since November 2019.
In respect of the Howes case, Detective Inspector Jonathan Potter said: “This was a violent attack on a busy London bus and I am sure that there are witnesses to the incident who have not yet come forward. I urge those people to get in touch without delay.
“Alongside our partners, we are working hard to reduce violent crime and to educate people about the serious consequences attached to knife crime.
“Some may mistakenly believe that they will be respected if they carry a knife, but the reality is that in any conflict, the presence of a knife will place everyone, including the knife carrier, in danger.”
Read more: After five-week delay, police issue appeal over bus stabbing
Read more: CronxWatch returns asking: ‘Where are Croydon’s police?’
Read more: Community groups demand dismissal of convicted Met officer
Read more: Croydon in 2023: London’s borough with most murder victims
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