Two teenagers – including a 16-year-old boy – face jail after being found guilty of stabbing a young Polish man to death and leaving his friend seriously injured in an unprovoked and random attack in a Birmingham street.
A third man was found guilty of helping an offender.
The chilling attacks took place in May 2015 in the early hours of Sunday morning, as Lukasz Furmanek, 24, and Joseph Dudek, 34, walked along Grove Lane, Handsworth.
The two friends had spent the evening drinking in a Polish club in Soho Road and were heading back to Lukasz Furmanek’s flat when they were attacked.
Both men were stabbed several times. Lukasz died at the scene due to his horrific injuries, despite emergency crews performing CPR in a bid to save him. Joseph was left in a critically ill condition.
Officers believe at least one knife was used in the attack. CCTV shows a knife stuffed in the bottom of one of the attacker’s trouser legs.
Following the stabbings, police launched a major enquiry.
19-year-old Abdullah Atiqzoy, an Afghan national from Elizabeth Street, Oldbury was arrested by Kent Police after being found travelling in the back of a lorry in an attempt to escape the country.
16-year-old Sadam Essakhil, also an Afghan national, from Small Heath was arrested after police issued an appeal to find him. He handed himself into police in Belgium, where he had recently escaped to.
Both men were charged with murder and attempted murder.
Following the verdicts, court reporting restrictions were lifted to allow Essakhil to be named.
A third man, Abduallah’s brother, and 24 year-old Feizollah Atiqzoy of no fixed address was arrested in August.
Although not there at the time of the attacks, he helped his brother and was charged with assisting an offender.
All three will be sentenced on 15th January 2016.
Detective Inspector Jim Munro from the force’s homicide team, said: “This was a completely random attack. The defendants had only crossed paths with the two victims seconds before they attacked them with knives.
“The attack was sudden, shocking and brutal, which left one man dead and his friend fighting for life. Fortunately Joseph Dudek has made a full recovery. Atiqzoy and Essakhil were guilty of barbaric violence and I welcome the verdicts.”
