London Road stabbing: Barber shop attack has echoes of two city murders

A 16-year-old boy was stabbed in broad daylight on one of Sheffield's busiest roads on Friday afternoon when he was reportedly attacked outside 1stanbul Barber on London Road.

The teenager was taken to hospital although South Yorkshire Police said his injuries were not deemed to be life-threatening or life-altering.

As of yesterday, no arrests had been made over the attack.

The police probe into the attack is continuing this morning.

There have been other notable incidents at barber shops in Sheffield over the years, two of which triggered murder investigations.

Tarek Chaiboub, 17, of Castledine Gardens, Wincobank, was killed in an attack at Frenchie’s barber shop on Spital Hill, Burngreave, in July 2008.

At the time, witnesses described a ‘wild west’ style shoot-out in the street.

Tarek had been carrying a gun when he was targeted.

Nigel Junior Ramsey, his brother Denzil Ramsey, their next door neighbour Levan Menzies and pal Michael Chattoo were all involved in a plot to kill Tarek, who was hunted down and shot dead when the gang they were all members of imploded.

The men, who were all part of the S3 postcode gang operating in Burngreave and Pitsmoor at that time, wanted the teenager dead when rival factions in the gang clashed.

They blamed Tarek for passing on information that led to the near-fatal stabbing of another S3 gang member.

Nigel Ramsey – known on the streets as ‘The General’ – and said to have been in charge of the younger members, organised the killing while behind bars.

Ramsey, who was 23 when he was jailed in 2009 and formerly of Andover Street, Burngreave, was convicted of murder on the grounds that he ordered the shooting of Tarek from a smuggled phone in his prison cell when he was serving time for a stabbing.

He was jailed for a minimum of 35 years.

Chattoo was jailed for a minimum of 30 years, Denzil Ramsey got 25 years and Levan Menzies was jailed for 20 years.

Three years after Tarek was killed, emergency services were alerted to a fatal stabbing another barber shop in the city.

Mubarak Ali, 23, of Headford Grove, Broomhall, is said to have organised an ambush of James Knowles, then 22 and of Deer Park Road, Stannington, in a barber's shop on Abbeydale Road as part of a gang feud.

But after Knowles was attacked in the shop he ended up stabbing Ali to death in an attack on nearby Mount Pleasant Road, Highfield.

He stabbed Ali through the heart.

Knowles was jailed for 10 years for manslaughter after a trial.

Jailing Knowles, Mr Justice Openshaw warned that the murder could 'further stoke feuding and rivalry' between gangs in the city.

Anyone with information about the latest incident on London Road should call South Yorkshire Police on 10 and quote incident number 490 of January 7 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.