Abdullahi Tarabi

Abdullahi Tarabi was stabbed in Northolt at the junction with Whitton Avenue West and West End Lane at about 3.30pm on Tuesday 11 April 2017. He was taken to a hospital in north London but died the same day at 5.35pm.

Two youths were tried for his murder but were acquitted after it was said that they had acted in self-defence.

However, it was said that one of the men that was tried was Tamba Momodu, a member of a drill rap-group who was also known as Tee-Rose, who moved to Telford shortly after the murder trial but who was shot dead on Tuesday, 13 October 2020 in the car park of the Bridges Business Park in Horsehay, Telford. It was said that he was shot five times. His murder investigation is currently ongoing.

Four people were initially arrested on suspicion of Abdullahi Tarabi's murder at the time, a 16, 17, 18 and 19 year old. The 18 and 19 year olds were arrested shortly after the murder whilst the 16-year-old was arrested on the Thursday 13 April and the 17-year-old was arrested on the Friday 14 April 2017.

It was claimed that Abdullahi Tarabi had been chased along Whitton Avenue West by a gang that had arrived on mopeds and that he had stopped and put his hands up and had then been stabbed by one of the youths that had been chasing him.

The chase had started when Abdullahi Tarabi was with his friends and brother near the roundabout at the junction of Whitton Avenue West and West End Lane. He was then chased towards Newnham Close and down the alley where he was caught and stabbed.

A witness said, 'There was screaming and shouting it was horrifying. The next thing I knew there were police everywhere and teenagers running around. It was chaos'.

Another witness said that they saw one of the youths stab Abdullahi Tarabi in the stomach with a black-tipped blade in an upward action.

Abdullahi Tarabi collapsed in an alleyway in the arms of a local resident outside a house. The stab wound had cut a major blood vessel and caused parts of his intestines to come out.

His post mortem stated that he died from a stab wound to the abdomen.

Two men were then seen to run away, chased by four men, including Abdullahi Tarabi's brother.

It was heard that as Abdullahi Tarabi had initially fled from the two youths towards his home that he had called out 'Back the Ramsay' which meant 'get a knife', Ramsay being a reference to the famous television celebrity chef. The chase was partly caught on CCTV and the court heard an audio recording of Abdullahi Tarabi calling out 'Back the Ramsay' as he fled.

The defence said that it was clear that Abdullahi Tarabi was calling out to his friends for a knife and it was submitted that he was doing that for reasons of self-defence.

The police said at the time that they didn't think that robbery was the motive for the attack and said that they were investigating the possibility that Abdullahi Tarabi and the other men were known to each other and appealed for witnesses to come forward. However, when the men were acquitted the judge commented on the lack of people that came forward, saying, 'Very few people are prepared to help the police', referring to murder cases, adding, 'Had somebody helped the police the outcome might have been different'. The judge asked them, 'Why don't you help the police?'.

Before the jury returned their verdict, they asked the judge, do 'we have to be unanimous in determining a verdict of self-defence'.

Abdullahi Tarabi's nickname was Teewiz or Teewhiz.

In June 2018 it was reported that five members of the drill group 1011 (a music group) who made music videos shown on the web site Youtube had been banned from making music that mentioned Abdullahi Tarabi's stabbing. They were given broader restrictions on making music which were criticised by freedom of expression campaigners who said, 'Banning a kind of music is not the way to handle ideas or opinions that are distasteful or disturbing. This isn’t going to address the issues that lead to the creation of this kind of music, nor should we be creating a precedent in which certain forms of art – which include violent images or ideas are banned. We need to tackle actual violence, not ideas and opinions'.

The ban on the type of music that 1011 could make not only restricted reference to Abdullahi Tarabi's death, but also making music with violent lyrics or mentioning death or injury in songs or on social media. The group were noted for having millions of video views on the YouTube website and it was claimed that tracks in the genre had been linked to a rise in violent crime.

The five men were also convicted of conspiracy to commit violent disorder and given a three-year criminal behaviour order. The order was brought about by the Metropolitan Police’s Trident gang unit that claimed that the videos, which often featured masked or hooded groups talking about hedonistic lifestyles and their relationships with guns, drugs and stabbings were causing a rise in violent crime across London.

However, Tamba Momodu was not one of the five men included in that legal action although he was later connected with the performance of a controversial video released shortly after his acquittal that referenced Abdullahi Tarabi's stabbing. Tamba Momodu was known as Tee-Rose and had been part of a group known as TerrorRL that had released a large number of music videos on the internet around 2017.

The order prohibited the five men from using social media and music videos and performances to encourage violence or to mention postcodes in a gang context or to mention the death of Abdullahi Tarabi. It also required the group to inform the police within 24 hours of releasing new videos and give them 48 hours’ notice of the date and location of any performance or recording and allow the police to attend. The order also required the group members to not possess balaclavas or attend the Notting Hill Carnival.

It was reported that the Metropolitan Police had established a database of over 1,400 videos for intelligence purposes and had asked the YouTube website to remove 60 videos.

The 1011 group members were arrested by the police on 9 November 2017 in Colville Square, Notting Hill after the police said that they suspected that the group were planning to attack a rival group, 12 World, with machetes and baseball bats. However, the group said that they were on their way to make a music video and the items found, which included balaclavas and gloves were props for the video.

The five group members were detained for between 10 months and three-and-a-half years each.

It was also later reported that an ex-BBC Radio 1 DJ and Capital FM DJ radio presenter had recorded a song with the group which included the lyrics 'Teewiz', 'got splashed and died, and I don’t feel sorry for his mum'. It was however also reported that Abdullahi Tarabi's mother said that the singers were taunting her. She said, 'They can’t imagine what it feels like to lose a son. This video makes me upset and I don’t feel safe anymore'. The music video was recorded at the radio presenter's recording studio, however, his company later said that they were unaware of the events surrounding the lyrics in question and removed the video from their website, but copies of it remained elsewhere on the internet.

It was said that Tamba Momodu had been in the video that was recorded in the radio presenter's recording studio in which the lyrics 'got splashed and died, and I don’t feel sorry for his mum' were used and that it had been recorded on the day following his acquittal at the Old Bailey. In the video, the person thought to have been Tamba Momodu in a blue jacket on the day after he was acquitted of murder, wearing a face covering is seen in the background and to then come forward from the group at point when the lyrics 'got splashed and died, and I don’t feel sorry for his mum' were sung.

Following Tamba Momodu's murder his mother said, 'We are all devastated at the loss of my son Tamba Momodu. We knew Tamba as Tee or Kutubu, a smiley charismatic young man who would light up any room he entered. He was a big part of our lives and was massively loved by all who knew him, it is hard for us to come to terms with what has happened and at this time we as a family respectfully request privacy'.

It is not clear what the reasoning for the self-defence verdict in Abdullahi Tarabi's stabbing was or whether the case was in anyway left open and as such the resolution of Abdullahi Tarabi's apparent murder remains unclear.