Boy, 16, was in "tragically wrong place at wrong time," jury told in trial of men accused of his murder
A 16-year-old boy was “tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time” when a car “used as a weapon” mounted the pavement and fatally hit him, jurors in a murder trial heard today.
Sheffield Crown Court heard those inside the car had been attempting to run down three males on e-bikes.
Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Taleb was not the intended target of the fatal collision, which occurred after a grey Audi vehicle mounted the pavement on Staniforth Road, Darnall.
“Abdullah happened tragically to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Alistair MacDonald KC, prosecuting, told the jury of four men and eight women.
“The car was coming from the opposite direction and the front offside or right-hand side of the car struck Abdullah, who was thrown into the air and sustained catastrophic injuries in the course of that collision from which there was no hope of recovery.”
The court heard jurors are set to see “distressing” CCTV of the fatal incident later this afternoon.
Abdullah, who arrived in the country just weeks earlier after fleeing war-torn Yemen, was given “sustained CPR” at the roadside by an off-duty clinical support worker who was passing in a car in the moments following the collision.
Despite the best efforts of the support worker, paramedics and A&E medics, Abdullah could not be saved and died in hospital a short time after the collision took place on June 4, 2025.
Police subsequently charged three men - brothers Zulkernain Ahmed, aged 20, and Armaan Ahmed, 27, both of Locke Drive, Darnall and 30-year-old Adam Mohammed, of Acres Hill Road, Darnall - with the murder of Abdullah, as well as charges related to three others the defendants are alleged to have been aiming for.
Zulkernain Ahmed is alleged to have been the driver of the vehicle, while Armaan Ahmed and Adam Mohammed are said to have been back seat passengers.
Mr MacDonald said: “It is the prosecution case that they were all in this together.”
The three defendants deny the charges against them and have today (Tuesday, January 13, 2026) gone on trial at Sheffield Crown Court.
“Well, what was the car doing on the pavement? Well, it had been used, say the prosecution, as a weapon,” Mr MacDonald said.
He continued: “Instead, it was three lads who were on electric bikes, two on electric bikes and one on a moped, and who had been travelling on Staniforth Road in the same direction as Abdullah had been walking but in the opposite direction to the car that struck Abdullah.”
Mr MacDonald said the sequence of events that led to Abdullah’s death were that the car initially missed the first of the three riders.
It went on to strike the second of the riders, an 18-year-old male called La’rome Divers, before fatally hitting Abdullah.
Mr Divers was hit so hard that he was thrown over a hedge into a nearby garden. While he survived the collision, Mr Divers underwent extensive treatment and surgery as a result of his injuries, Mr MacDonald said.
The jury were told they should not expect to hear evidence from Mr Divers, who has also “refused to make a statement to the police.”
Detailing the defendants’ alleged roles in the fatal incident, Mr MacDonald said the driver was Zulkernain Ahmed, while the passengers were his brothers, Zain Ahmed, in the front passenger seat, Armaan Ahmed in the rear nearside seat and the other backseat passenger was Adam Mohammed.
Zain Ahmed disappeared following the collision, and remains a wanted suspect, the court heard.
The jury were shown CCTV footage of the moments leading up to the fatal incident as three e-bike riders travelled up nearby roads, shortly before the court adjourned for the lunchtime break a few moments ago.
The nearby roads include Locke Drive, the street on which the Ahmed brothers’ family home is located.
Two minutes prior to the fatal collision, Zulkernain Ahmed took a black baseball bat from the boot of the vehicle, while it was located on Locke Drive, and put it in the driver’s side of the vehicle, the jury have been told.
The CCTV showing the crash which led to Abdullah’s death is set to be played when the jury return to court this afternoon.
Detailing what the Crown asserts the footage shows “without the slightest doubt,” Mr MacDonald continued: “This car was deliberately steered onto the wrong side of the road and into the path of the cyclists.
“It even passed a pedestrian refuge on the wrong side of the road before any collision took place.
“It is the prosecution case that at no point was any effort made to slow the vehicle down before the collisions took place, indeed, careful listening to the CCTV of the incident, some of which there is sound, demonstrates that the car engine was revved as it approached the cyclists.”
Prosecutors allege that none of the four men inside the car, each of whom were in possession of a mobile phone, attempted to call 999 as Abdullah and Mr Divers lay injured a short distance away.
The three defendants each face one count of murder, three counts of attempted murder, along with the alternative counts of one count of grievous bodily harm with intent and two counts of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent, all of which they deny.
The prosecution opening is set to continue from 2pm.
The trial, which is expected to last between three and four weeks, continues.