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Search forCroydon stabbing witness tells of knife horror
Friday, August 22, 2008, 07:00
Zbigniew Gasinksi says he has been unable to sleep and been in floods of tears since witnessing the teenager's dying moments.
Mr Gasinski, 25, who works at Chiquito's restaurant on the Valley Park estate, was walking to his West Croydon home in the early hours of Saturday morning when tragedy unfolded before him.
He had bought a bottle of beer and was sitting drinking it in a shop doorway in London Road when a confrontation erupted 50 metres away at the junction with Sumner Road.
"I saw three young Asian guys hanging around on the street corner," he recalled.
"They were shouting and laughing, but my English is very poor and I didn't understand what they were saying."
Speaking through an interpreter, he continued: "I saw a man on the other side of the road holding a flick-knife.
"One of the three guys grabbed an advertising hoarding from in front of a shop and was angrily waving it at the man who was about 10 metres away."
Mr Gasinski returned to his beer but when he walked to the junction with Sumner Road about three minutes later he found a shocking scene.
He said: "I saw a young guy lying on the pavement.
"I could hear he was struggling for breath.
"One of his hands was pressed against his neck where blood was pouring out.
"His friends were running around in panic and shouting 'call the police'.
"I saw the man who had been carrying the knife walk slowly and calmly past me and go up London Road, glancing once back over his shoulder to see what was going on."
Mr Gasinski says police arrived within seconds.
Then an ambulance crew came and immediately applied pressure to Nilanthan's wound before putting him on a stretcher and rushing him off to hospital.
One of the panicking youths then ran along London Road, as if in a belated attempt to catch the perpetrator.
Mr Gasinski added: "I haven't been able to sleep properly since and have had regular headaches.
"I have never witnessed anything like this before.
"It was horrible. With my lack of English, I felt helpless to do anything."
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