London’s knife horror revealed as student shot and knifed to death at random is the eighth to be slaughtered in the capital in seven days
A UNIVERSITY student shot and stabbed to death in an “unprovoked” attack in north London is the eighth person in a WEEK to be killed in the capital.
Russell Jones, 23, died after being ambushed outside shops near Ponders End station in Enfield on Saturday.
A friend of Jones said the 23-year-old student was “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Jordon Welsh, who attended Lea Valley High School along with Jones, told the : “'Russell was a kind, loving guy and very humble in school.
“'He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Jones, who is understood to have been in his last two weeks of a course at the University of Hertfordshire, was with a friend, also 23, when four hooded men launched a brutal attack.
His friend was also stabbed and taken to hospital but is not in a serious condition.
Detectives from the Met's Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating.
Police have yet to make any arrests.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Partridge, who is leading the investigation, said: "This was a totally unprovoked attack on the victims and their group, with the level of violence used being utterly deplorable.
“Whilst the attack itself only took minutes to carry out, I want to hear from members of the public who may have seen them in the area before the attack or afterwards when they fled towards Sandhurst Road.
“Any fragment of information could assist the investigation. Please do not assume that we already have your information."
The news comes as charity campaigners warned London had reached a “crisis point” in violent crime as eight people were killed in just seven days.
Each of the eight murder victims recorded in London between March 14 and March 20 were either shot or stabbed to death, the Metropolitan Police said.
Patrick Green, chief executive of knife-crime awareness charity the Ben Kinsella Trust, said authorities had not done enough to educate young people on the dangers of carrying knives, despite a "steady increase" in violent attacks.
He said: "We are at crisis point.
"We are seeing a steady increase in violent crime, and I think things may well get worse before they get better."
Of those currently identified, Lyndon Davis, 18, is the youngest to have been named, after he was found suffering from a single stab wound in Chadwell Heath on March 14.
Joseph Williams-Torres, 20, was killed the same evening as he sat in a stationary car in Walthamstow. Mr Jones was found three days later with stab and gunshot wounds in Enfield, on March 17.
Dad-of-two Tyrone Silcott, 42, was stabbed multiple times outside a St Patrick's Day party in Hackney on March 18.
Hersi Hersi, 36, who lived as a trans woman and was known as ‘Naomi’, was stabbed to death in a hotel in Hounslow, not far from Heathrow Airport on the same day.
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The following day Balbar Johal, 48, died from a stab wound in Southall.
On the same day an unnamed man in his 40s died after being stabbed in Walthamstow.
The most recent victim, Beniamin Pieknyi, 20, from Romania, was stabbed in the Stratford Centre in East London on Tuesday night after being chased by a gang.
And cops were called to Tower Hamlets this afternoon when a 17-year-old was repeatedly stabbed in the chest.
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