Specialist team aim to crack Rezwan Ali murder case
A dedicated team of ‘experienced police detectives’ have been brought in to solve a murder investigation in which a teenager was stabbed to death at a party over a year ago.
Rezwan Ali was stabbed when a fight broke out at a house in Walsall in January 2018 – but more than a year on no-one has been charged in connection with his death despite six arrests.
West Midlands Police now has a small team of experienced officers who are now solely dedicated into investigating Mr Ali’s death and will be speaking to around 100 witnesses, an inquest heard this week.
Members of Mr Ali’s family, who were present at the inquest at Black Country Coroner's Court, said they were waiting for the police to get them justice.
Police were called to a disturbance in Willows Road, Chuckery, at around 1.45am on January 14, 2018, 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 the inquest on Wednesday, the senior coroner for the Black Country, Zafar Siddique, asked police for an update on their investigation into the death of Mr Ali.
Acting Detective Inspector Nick Barnes said that those people who were at the party were the ‘key’ to solving the investigation.
He said: “I have recently taken over this investigation and four dedicated staff are now working solely on the operation.
"They are experienced police detectives and we now have a small team of five people.
“The crux of this investigation is around witnesses – people who were at that party that night.
"That really is where the key is to solving this investigation.
"There are around 100 people we need to speak to, a lot we have spoken to already, but we need to speak to them again.
"In terms of suspects we are not searching for anyone else.
"Those people that we have arrested, there is nothing I have seen that suggests we need to arrest anyone else.
"Our investigation will focus on those people."
A family member, addressing the coroner, said: “We are lost in a hole and don’t know where this is going. We are waiting for police to get us this justice.”
Mr Siddique adjourned the hearing to allow the police time to carry on with their investigation.
A new hearing was set for June 24.
