Tributes have been paid to a binman walking his dog after work before he was stabbed to death yards from his London home.
The 49-year-old council worker named locally as Wayne Broadhurst tried to stop an attack on a 14-year-old boy and his father in Midhurst Gardens in Hillingdon, near Uxbridge, according to neighbours.
He was stabbed as his beloved cocker spaniel barked just yards from his home at around 5pm on Monday.
Met Police confirmed a 22-year-old Afghan migrant was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.
His partner Ann posted on social media: ‘I’ll miss you for the rest of my life. I wish you were here.’
A large group of men, women and children laid flowers near the police tape and held a minute’s silence, some lit candles.
One neighbour toldMetro: ‘No one in our community would have a bad word to say about this lovely man. He was unbelievably and shockingly killed near his own home.
‘He was a quietly spoken, unobtrusive man and wouldn’t hurt a fly. He went to work and then home – that was it. He was in a long-term solid relationship and they loved eachother.’
She added: ‘He was devoted to his beautiful dog. The dog is at home and safe and well.
‘He lived for his dog. That’s what we’re all saying that his beloved pet witnessed the killing of his dad. That would have broken his heart more than anything.’
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Locals said the assailant appeared on the road ‘waving a knife’ and that he attacked the 14-year-old boy and his father.
They added a man walking his dog tried to separate them but was stabbed to death.
CCTV footage appears to show the moment police cars swing by the suspect who is calmly walking in the opposite direction.
Two officers approach him from behind with tasers raised and shout at him to put the weapon down.
Paul O’Brien, 50, who witnessed the arrest, toldMetro:‘It was chaos. I’ve never seen anything like it.
‘It was just people shouting, the police shouting “armed police drop your weapon”, the guy not dropping his weapon and then getting tasered.
‘He had his back to me and there were two police officers.
‘They were walking towards him telling him to drop his weapon.
‘He had his hands up and had the weapon in his right hand and he was holding it up.’
He added that the blade the suspect was carrying could have been around 30cm long.
The victim was described by one Hillingdon local as ‘innocent’ and a ‘lovely man’.
Another local toldMetrothere was ‘lots of screaming’ when the attack took place.
A neighbour in Uxbridge said the man who died was a bin man.
She said: ‘He’s a bin man. I’ve been here two years and would see him walk past the window.’
She described him as ‘the last person on Earth that you would think somebody would go for’.
She said she took some flowers and a box of shortbread over for his wife and added that on Monday he was ‘just doing the normal dog walk that he does every day’.
She said: ‘I still can’t get over it.
‘If he was five or 10 minutes later taking the dog out would the same thing have happened?’
The man arrested after a fatal stabbing in Uxbridge is an Afghan national who entered the country in a lorry in 2020, the Home Office has confirmed.
Officials also confirmed that he is not resident in an asylum hotel or any other Home Office accommodation, despite claims on social media.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Our thoughts are with the family and friends of those impacted by this horrific incident.
‘We are receiving regular updates from the Metropolitan Police. The priority must now be for the police to investigate so those responsible can be brought to justice.’
The suspect was not injured and has since been taken into police custody, the Met said in a statement.
‘An investigation has been launched and urgent enquiries remain on-going,’ they said, urging anyone with information to contact them.
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