Age: 19
Sex: male
Date: 5 Mar 1995
Place: Taco Joes Restaurant, 15 Atlantic Road, Brixton
Paulo Seque was stabbed to death outside a party.
He was refused entry to an event at Taco Joe's Restaurant in Brixton at about 3am after he tried to get in without paying the £5 entry fee. After he was refused entry there was a scuffle in the street during which Paulo Seque was stabbed in the thigh. He was seen surrounded by a group of black men, one of whom sprayed CS gas in his face. He was then seen staggering off down the street with blood coming out from a thigh wound.
He was taken to Kings College Hospital where he was pronounced dead. He had suffered a 12cm stab wound to his left thigh that had cut his femoral artery, causing him to bleed to death.
Police took over 400 statements from about 260 people.
Witnesses that saw him shortly before trying to get into Taco Joe's Restaurant said that he had seemed determined to get in.
The police Detective Inspector said, 'A crowd of people came out of Taco Joe's and surrounded the victim. What exactly happened in that huddle has not become clear. CS gas was sprayed and after that the victim was seen to stagger away in a very subdued manner'.
The police said that shortly after, they went into the restaurant and arrested several of the men that had been in the crowd who were then interviewed under caution but said that none of them admitted anything and that there was no evidence from what was said to implicate any one individual. The police added that they found a number of knives but didn't find the murder weapon. However, they added that a bloodstained knife scabbard was found at the back of the premises in the bin area.
When the Coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, he said, 'It is generally felt that someone is aware and knows who stabbed Paulo Seque, but up to the present time there is insufficient evidence to charge anyone with his murder', noting that it was to a large extent a mystery as to what happened during the attack.
He had lived in Saxby Road in Brixton and was an Angolan political asylum seeker. He had entered the UK illegally as a political asylum seeker and was due to be deported back to Angola at the time.
Taco Joe's Restaurant had been at 15 Atlantic Road but closed, the premises later being use by other businesses, including Pangaea, The Brixton Bar and Grill, The Atlantis and is currently unlet.