Grandfather begged to see wife one last time as he bled to death after he was stabbed while returning from local pub
Authorities have identified the man who was stabbed to death in a quiet London suburb while returning from his local pub. 69-year-old Allan Isichei, a musician and the director of a building company, was attacked on Saturday, August 24, shortly after he left the Plough Inn pub in Southall, west London, where he performed regularly, The Guardian reports.
Isichei was walking to his home in St Mary’s Avenue South when he was stabbed twice. At 6.39 pm, he stumbled on to a neighbor's front door and requested them to call an ambulance. However, he succumbed to his injuries despite the paramedics' best efforts. Raj Grover, a nearby resident, said his son Kevneet, 15, answered the door as Isichei begged to see his wife while urging them to call an ambulance.
“I realized it was somebody who had been injured,” said Kevneet, whose younger sister, 11, also saw the injuries. “He straight away started saying ‘call an ambulance’. I said: ‘OK, what’s happened?’ because I didn’t recognize him, I got scared. He said ‘call an ambulance’ and then he collapsed. I called my dad.
“The ambulance let us down. When we called, they started asking so many questions," he continued. "So many people were calling the ambulance, the police. The ambulance were asking so many questions, they took quite a few minutes, but then his face started to go white and his lips as well.”
Responding paramedics reportedly asked Isichei to stand up and get on the stretcher despite his wounds, Grover said. On the other hand, a spokeswoman for the London ambulance service said they arrived within six minutes but would investigate how the situation was handled at the scene. According to the spokeswoman, it is “usual and accepted practice” to ask a conscious patient to try to stand as a way to assess their mobility, and “often the quickest and safest” method.
“He just walked home as normal and something happened before he got home," a friend said. "He would come in about once a week, he played in the band and used to pop in for a chat, he never had more than one pint. He was a lovely fellow, really mild-mannered, a lovely man.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Isichei was the managing director of Broadway Construction, a family business he built from the ground up in 1974. Furthermore, the grandfather-of-four had been married for over 40 years and also worked as a part-time coach for the Wasps rugby club in Coventry.
“Besides work, I now play saxophone with an R & B Band and Jazz Ensemble,” the profile stated.
“He rang the bell and I went out, my son was there, he was shouting: ‘Dad, come out," Grover recalled. "I went downstairs and saw he [Isichei] was full of blood and then I was running to pick up a towel. I put the towel [on him] and I was pressing to stop the blood, then my wife came out, we called the ambulance and the police.”
Detectives carried out a thorough investigation at the scene Sunday afternoon. As the street remained cordoned off, forensics teams in specialist uniforms worked the scene of the crime until nearly 2 pm in the afternoon.
The Rev Dave Bookless, who is the vicar of St. Mary's church just opposite the scene, claimed the ambulance that drove Isichei away abruptly stopped at a nearby park.
“The ambulance ended up stopping just down the road,” he said. “They were working on him there and trying to resuscitate him but sadly I think the injuries were too severe. It’s come as a huge shock. A lot of people are saying this is not the kind of area this happens."
“Although we’re kind of in the middle of urban, multicultural London, there’s quite a village feeling here," he continued. "It happened in broad daylight in a residential street. People are really quite shocked.”
Police believe the attack was not linked to anything that may have transpired inside the pub. According to Scotland Yard, a man in his 30s was arrested on suspicion of the murder and was reportedly held in hospital overnight with minor injuries.