Four men have been charged with the murder of Luther Edwards at York Hall in 2016 and are due in court in east London today.
All four appear in custody before Thames magistrates, charged with the murder of the father-of-two in Bethnal Green on July 29 last year.
The charges come more than three months after a peace rally held in August to mark the first anniversary of 32-year-old Luther’s death, part of a campaign aimed at ending knife incidents across London.
The rally was addressed by Luther’s cousin Angeleen Hill who told the East London Advertiser at the time that “the community needs to come together and make our voice heard”.
A march was held from Clapham Common in south London, close to where Luther, an HGV lorry driver, lived with his two daughters, the youngest just 11 months when her dad died.
Luther was at York Hall to watch a Friday night boxing tournament and was with his sister Naresa Edwards and former partner Tomara.
He was stabbed as spectators were leaving around 10pm. Naresa witnessed the whole thing and tried to save him, the family said later.
Luther made his way to the BP petrol station in Cambridge Heath Road where he collapsed and was rushed by ambulance to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, but died an hour later from a stab wound to the heart.
York Hall remained closed that weekend and Old Ford Road cordoned off as forensic officers examined the scene. News of the stabbing broke in the East London Advertiser a few hours later.
Detectives later questioned nine men, in their 20s and early 30s, but there were no charges until yesterday.
Det Chief Insp Laurence Smith made continued appeals for information month after month against a background of “concerns about people in the community speaking to the police”.
Witnesses eventually emerged and the stalled police investigation resumed in the summer, 12 months after Luther’s death.
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Three of the men appearing at Thames Magistrates Court today charged with murder are from south London—Jerome Osbourne, 33, from Somerset Avenue in Chessington, Marlon Thomas, 27, from Woodcote Place in West Nortwood, and Christopher O’Sullivan, 31, from Bishopsford Road in Morden. The fourth man is James Robinson, 29, of no fixed address.
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