Rezwan Ali killer 'may never be found' after party knife attack
A leading detective hinted 'budgetary cuts' to policing resources have had an impact on the murder investigation
The killer of a teenager knifed at a party almost a year ago may never be caught – as detectives still struggle to understand exactly what happened.
Rezwan Ali was stabbed when a fight broke out at a house in Walsall in January but no one has yet been charged.
Police are to be given more officers to work on the case in a bid to track down the killer once and for all, an inquest heard.
But a force boss warned that if they had not charged anyone in the next three months ‘it’s unlikely we ever will’.
Police were called to a disturbance in Willows Road, Chuckery, at around 1.45am on January 14 and discovered the 19-year-old student in the kitchen, bleeding from a knife wound to his chest.
Friends had tried to save him by performing emergency resuscitation without success.
Six people were arrested on suspicion of murder but later released.
At an inquest, the Black Country Coroner Zafar Siddique asked police for an update.
Detective Inspector Warren Hines, of the West Midlands Police homicide unit, described it as ‘a complicated case’, which had been hampered by lack of resources due to government cuts.
He said: “There is work being done on intelligence analysis to make sense of all the different accounts from people who were present at the death but more needs to be done.
"It’s fair to say that policing is in a very difficult position at the moment in terms of budgetary cuts.
"It’s difficult to say what the likely outcome will be while anomalies exist.
"We’ve been told we’ve been allocated further staff but realistically if we’ve not charged anyone in the next three months it’s unlikely we ever will.”
He added that the force was acutely conscious of the upcoming first-year anniversary and added: “I take no pleasure that the family still don’t have the facts but I promise to try and get some answers for them.”
