LONDON: One of the victims of the horrific Nottingham string of stabbings has been named as Indian-Irish Nottingham University student Grace O’Malley Kumar, a medical student who also had played hockey for England in the U-16 and U-18 squads, and cricket at the junior county level.
The 19-year-old was stabbed to death during a string of attacks in Nottingham on Tuesday by the same man who knifed her friend and another man to death and left one man in hospital critically injured.
She was in her first year studying medicine at university, following in the footsteps of her father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, who was awarded an MBE for saving the lives of three Afro-Caribbean teenagers knifed in a gang attack in 2009.
Kumar (19) was walking back to her university accommodation with her friend, fellow student Barnaby Webber (19) at 4 am BST on Tuesday morning from a post-exam party when a man randomly stabbed and killed both of them. Kumar fled from her attacker into a front garden and tried to enter a house before she collapsed and died.
The suspect then went on to stab a school caretaker, Ian Coates (65), to death and stole his van and rammed itinto three pedestrians, leaving one critically injured. The suspect, a 31-year-old migrant from West Africa, was tasered and arrested soon afterwards on suspicion of murder. Counter-terrorism policing is working alongside Nottinghamshire police on the case.
Kumar leaves a mother, Sinead, and brother, James. The family, who live in Woodford Green, northeast London, issued a statement saying: “She was resilient and wise beyond her years. She leaves behind devastated extended family and friends. We request that all media outlets stop invading our privacy while we face this sorrow.”
Professor Shearer West, vice-chancellor of the University of Nottingham, said: “Grace was a medical student, thriving in her first year of study and inspired to a career in medicine by work placements in a GP surgery and her volunteering for the nationwide vaccination programme during the Covid-19 pandemic. She was held in the highest regard by her tutors and teammates alike.”
Ex-international Pakistani hockey player Adnan Zakir tweeted: “Grace Kumar was an extremely talented hockey player. England Hockey has lost a future star.” England Hockey said it was “deeply saddened” by the news of her death.
The 19-year-old was stabbed to death during a string of attacks in Nottingham on Tuesday by the same man who knifed her friend and another man to death and left one man in hospital critically injured.
She was in her first year studying medicine at university, following in the footsteps of her father, Dr Sanjoy Kumar, who was awarded an MBE for saving the lives of three Afro-Caribbean teenagers knifed in a gang attack in 2009.
Kumar (19) was walking back to her university accommodation with her friend, fellow student Barnaby Webber (19) at 4 am BST on Tuesday morning from a post-exam party when a man randomly stabbed and killed both of them. Kumar fled from her attacker into a front garden and tried to enter a house before she collapsed and died.
The suspect then went on to stab a school caretaker, Ian Coates (65), to death and stole his van and rammed itinto three pedestrians, leaving one critically injured. The suspect, a 31-year-old migrant from West Africa, was tasered and arrested soon afterwards on suspicion of murder. Counter-terrorism policing is working alongside Nottinghamshire police on the case.
Kumar leaves a mother, Sinead, and brother, James. The family, who live in Woodford Green, northeast London, issued a statement saying: “She was resilient and wise beyond her years. She leaves behind devastated extended family and friends. We request that all media outlets stop invading our privacy while we face this sorrow.”
Professor Shearer West, vice-chancellor of the University of Nottingham, said: “Grace was a medical student, thriving in her first year of study and inspired to a career in medicine by work placements in a GP surgery and her volunteering for the nationwide vaccination programme during the Covid-19 pandemic. She was held in the highest regard by her tutors and teammates alike.”
Ex-international Pakistani hockey player Adnan Zakir tweeted: “Grace Kumar was an extremely talented hockey player. England Hockey has lost a future star.” England Hockey said it was “deeply saddened” by the news of her death.
