A heroic bystander who broke up a machete brawl in a London park in broad daylight has explained he risked his life because he 'wouldn't have forgotten' if 'one of those boys died'.
The Incident in Burgess Park
Hammed Danmole ran towards the blade-wielding teenagers while others scattered in horror at Burgess Park on Sunday, May 17. The 45-year-old Nigerian south Londoner had been playing his weekly Sunday league football match when he saw the youths take out the massive knives and start hacking at each other.
Instead of recoiling in fear, Mr Danmole could not help but imagine his own teenage son in that situation and raced towards the fray. He had noticed two black-clad hooded youths come into the park while taking a break behind the goalposts. Another boy arrived on a scooter five minutes later, but then an argument broke out, and two of the boys pulled out machetes, Mr Danmole said.
Video Shows the Violent Encounter
A video of the fight shows the first two slashing at each other and then a third pinning one of the boys to the ground while both chop at him with their knives. Video shared on social media showed three teens carrying machetes fighting in Burgess Park, Camberwell, south London.
Hero Hammed Danmole intervened in the brawl and split up the knifemen, saying: 'I would do anything to stop these young boys from killing each other.' One of the teens can be seen restraining a boy while a friend tries to stab him in broad daylight.
'I've got a 17-year-old boy and when I looked at them, I saw him. I would do anything to stop these young boys from killing each other,' he told The Times.
Bystander's Brave Intervention
While others cried out in fear or recorded the fight on their phones, Mr Danmole ran in to stop the brawl and forced them to separate. Footage shows him running in and shouting: 'Oi, stop that, what are you doing?' He managed to get the boy pinning his victim to the floor off him, and two of the knifemen ran one direction while the third ran the other. Mr Danmole shouted at them to 'Go away'.
Three teenagers were arrested at the scene and a fourth on Sunday, all aged between 16 and 17. They were charged with several offences, including possession of a bladed article, affray and possession of an offensive weapon in a public place.
Motivation and Views on Knife Crime
Mr Danmole, a property investor living in Beckenham after arriving in London from Nigeria, said: 'After I did it, people said I shouldn't have done that and I should have left them. But if I didn't stop it, and one of those boys died, I wouldn't have forgotten it for the rest of my life.'
To him, knife crime stems from the home and is 'about parenting'. He is strict with his own son, who lives with him, making sure he knows where he is going out. He added that knife crime seemed more common in the UK than Nigeria, where young boys carrying knives would 'get disciplined straight away'.
Mr Danmole said: 'It feels like it's got worse since I came to London. Every time I go on social media, I see videos like this.' He also noted that seeing police officers appears rarer now than when he first came to London.
Broader Context of Crime in London
Violent crime, sexual crime, theft and drug crime have all increased in London since Sadiq Khan became mayor, according to Met Police figures. Mr Khan used new figures showing there were 97 homicides in London last year to justify an attack on those who 'talk down our capital for their own political gain' – but the Tories accused him of 'gaslighting' Londoners about the true extent of crime.
