Uxbridge stabbing victim ‘saved by neighbours with baseball bats’

A man stabbed in an attack that left a dog walker dead was saved by his next door neighbours who rushed out armed with baseball bats to fend off the knifeman.

The 45-year-old man suffered life-changing injuries, but “maybe would have died” had he not been protected by the group, a resident said.

An Afghan national, 22, who entered the UK in a lorry in 2020 remains in custody being questioned by police over the assaults in Uxbridge, west London.

A 49-year-old man, named locally as Wayne Broadhurst, was killed in the incident on Monday evening, while two others were injured, including a 14-year-old boy.

A woman who lives next to the scene in Midhurst Gardens said a teenage boy with blood on his shirt and hand knocked on the door of her family home asking for help at around 5pm.

When her husband opened the door, four or five residents from a house opposite emerged with baseball bats to protect the injured man.

Tahira Hassan told the PA news agency: “The injured person was sitting in front of their house.

“They had bats. There were four or five people.

“They were protecting him, so they saved his life. They did a very good job.

“Maybe he would have died if they didn’t protect him,” the mother said.

The 45-year-old victim has a wife, son and daughter, and lives in a house on Midhurst Gardens, Mrs Hassan, who is in her 40s, added.

She said she thought his wife and daughter may have been out at the time.

The teenager who knocked on their door had blood on his shirt and hand “but the older man was injured badly”, she said.

Mrs Hassan said the attacker – whom she had never seen on the street before – had a “knife in his hand”, was wearing a black jacket and was a “tall slim person”.

When the knifeman spotted a dog walker he “straight away attacked him … so many times”, she added.

The residents Mrs Hassan said protected the man were approached for comment, but they did not wish to speak.

A woman who lives in Midhurst Gardens, who did not want to be named, told PA she saw the incident out of her window after hearing screaming.

She said: “I called my brother to come and have a look and then he called the police, and then whilst we were on the phone to police that’s when the dog walker came from the alleyway.

“He literally walked from the alleyway not knowing what he was about to walk into.

“As soon as he got in front of a house the man with the knife sort of pushed him over, literally in front of our house, and then got on top of him.

“We were on the phone with the police at the time and also telling the police this is happening right now, like, you know, please hurry.

“Afterwards (the attacker) got up and then he ran down the street.”

The attack is not being treated as terrorism, and detectives are working to establish any relationship between the suspect and the three victims, the Metropolitan Police said.

The Met said a 22-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Footage posted online appears to show the suspect walking along a residential street, before two police officers sprint after him, one pointing a Taser and shouting “drop the knife” and “get on the floor”.

One neighbour who did not want to be named said Mr Broadhurst was a binman who was “just doing the normal dog walk that he does every day”.

“I’ve been here two years and would see him walk past the window,” she said.

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 partner and added: “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?”

A group of around 100 men, women and children gathered to lay flowers near the police tape at the junction between Midhurst Gardens and Leybourne Road on Tuesday night, with some lighting candles.

Chief Superintendent Jill Horsfall said: “This was a shocking and senseless act of violence that has left one man dead and two others injured.

“Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and friends at this unimaginably difficult time.”