An 18-year-old Nigerian student was shot dead as he cycled
through an east London estate on Sunday, March 19th. David Adegbite, was
ambushed by a gang who surrounded him in a car park in Barking before shooting
him in the head shortly after 7pm as children played nearby.
Local officers, firearms officer and London Ambulance
Service rushed to the scene and the former Havering College student was taken
to the hospital where he died at 10.30PM.
Better known by his nickname "Dutch" Adegbite
studied IT at the college in Plaistow and dabbled in making music in his spare
time. In fact, the young Arsenal fan was looking forward to studying at
Middlesex University in the autumn.
Friends described him as a “loving, family boy” who was “in
the wrong place at the wrong time”.
An 18-year-old, who gave her name as Mary, said: “He was
such a smart guy, really clever and good at maths, he was due to start
university.
"He was no gangster or drug dealer, he was a good
family guy. He always talked about how much he loved his mother and wanted to
make her proud. “He was popular with
everyone. I just can’t believe there are people out there in London with guns,
you expect it in America but not here.”
Speaking outside his home in Dagenham, a relative of Mr
Adegbite said the family were “very, very devastated” by his death.
Friends lay flowers near the scene of the shooting which
spelled out his nickname Dutch in front of the floral tributes.
One said: “He was not aggressive at all. He was just funny.
He was a good footballer at school and was always well liked. He didn’t appear
to have any enemies, he was a peaceable sort of guy. He was very cool.”
Another said: “He was a good friend and a good guy. We were
planning to go to university together and he was going to do ICT (information
and communications technology). He was a bright happy person, this does not
make any to any of us.”