Keelan Wilson: Teenager's mother speaks out after stabbing horror
“I looked out of the window in my room and heard Keelan’s name, and thought ‘No, it can’t be’.”
The mother of stab victim Keelan Wilson has told of the moment she realised the boy lying fatally wounded on the ground near their home was her son.
Kelly Ellitts has now joined the Express & Star in calling for the Government to change the law around the sale of knives following the 15-year-old’s death.
The 40-year-old mother of two said: “I am 100 per cent backing the Express & Star’s campaign.
"If Keelan’s attacker didn’t have those weapons he might not have been as unlucky. I am behind the campaign.”
Kelly said she was first alerted to the tragedy by blue lights and sirens in the cul-de-sac at the back of the family’s home in Strathfield Walk, Merry Hill, Wolverhampton at around 11pm.
“I looked out of the window in my room and heard Keelan’s name, and thought ‘No, it can’t be’,” she said.
“I ran downstairs and and round the back. One of my neighbours told me ‘It’s not Keelan, he ran off’.
“She was telling me what happened but I really have no idea what she said. I was thinking ‘Where is Keelan?’ and ‘Who’s been run over?’ That’s what I thought had happened. I thought it must be one of Keelan’s friends.
“But as soon as I walked round there – I buy all of Keelan’s clothes – and as soon as I saw his Moschino boxer shorts, I knew.”
She said she urged her boy to fight for his life as paramedics tried to resuscitate him but she was not allowed to travel in the ambulance to New Cross Hospital.
Shortly after she did arrive, doctors had to break the news that Keelan had died.
“Not even for a second did I think that was what they were going to say. Keelan’s strong, he’s tall, he’s a fighter. Then one of them said they’d done everything they could.”
Kelly said her son had spent the afternoon of May 29 with her, having his hair cut at the barber’s in Bushbury, then visiting Home Bargains on the Stafford Road and finally River Island in the city centre.
The Highfields School pupil then went to a friend’s house, texting his mother at 8.25pm to tell her his phone battery was fading so she shouldn’t worry if she didn’t hear from him, and that he would be home early. That was their last communication.
Last week, the E&S revealed how deadly blades are available for sale on the Black Country high street.
Ms Ellitts said she was stunned by the type of weapons that could easily fall into the hands of young people and called for the Government to act.
“I know how easy it is to buy these weapons on the high street, I have heard how easy it is,” she said.
“I am just disgusted that these are available to buy so easily. I didn’t realise some of the types of knives that are available. The Government needs to change the law.
“Keelan’s attack was violent. I 100 per cent feel that those knives need to be taken off the street and the Government can make a difference by banning them.”
Kelly, who is six months pregnant, said the pair were particularly close as she had spent several years as a single mother after separating from Keelan’s father Gary Wilson.
“It was just the two of us for so long,” she said. “We went everywhere together – concerts, theme parks, holidays two or three times a year, weekends away.
“We were more than mother and son, we were best friends. And he adored his little half-brother, acting like a father to him at times.”
More than 3,500 people have backed a petition by the Express & Star calling for a ban on the sale of deadly knives.
It calls on Home Secretary Sajid Javid to review legislation regarding the sales of knives, swords, machetes and other weapons.
