Killer who stabbed victim on one of Birmingham's busiest roads found with handwritten rap lyrics referencing the incident
A killer is facing a life sentence for the murder of a teenager who was stabbed to death moments after getting out of his car on one of Birmingham’s busiest roads.
Yahya Sharif had pulled on to the pavement in Coventry Road, Small Heath, during rush hour when he was ambushed.
The 18-year-old was stabbed once in the chest and managed to run away but quickly collapsed and died at the scene.
CCTV captured a group chatting nearby in the moments before the attack, and then heading towards the victim’s BMW when he pulled up, at around 5.20pm on 10 December last year.
The men, some of them masked, approached Mr Sharif, who turned and was immediately stabbed by Abdirahaman Yussuf, 20, of Hob Moor Road, Yardley.
A murder hunt was launched and officers recovered a knife from a street nearby.
Following a public appeal for help in finding Yussuf, he was arrested in London on February 16 this year.
Hidden in an envelope in his sock were handwritten rap lyrics apparently referencing the stabbing.
Following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court which started in October, Yussuf was found guilty of murder on Friday.
Three other men with him at the time had denied a charge of murder on the basis they all acted together and they were found not guilty following the trial at Birmingham Crown Court. A fifth man was acquitted during the trial.
Detective Inspector Hannah Whitehouse, leading the investigation, said: “Yussuf attacked Mr Sharif without warning or provocation and sadly, the motive for this killing may never be clear.’’
Yussuf will be sentenced on a date to be set.
