At 4.06pm on Tuesday, Thomas O’Halloran, 87, was attacked in Cayton Road, Greenford, near the A40 in west London. His assailant then fled, and no arrests have been made in the capital’s sixth homicide in four days. Scotland Yard is keeping an open mind about the motive and hasn’t ruled out robbery as a possibility as they appeal for witnesses.
I saw a couple of people gathering around him, and then he drove past and stopped further up, and then there was a group of young boys around him,” Frasley Coutinho, who lives opposite the murder scene, said.
Locals also revealed that Mr. O’Halloran was a musician who frequently performed his accordion to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees. He always had a Ukraine flag on the front of his basket,” Hitesh Patel, 62, a shop owner at the nearby Greenford station, told the Standard. It said ‘Aid for Ukraine.’ He was a wonderful, kind man.
As dozens of officers guarded the murder scene on Wednesday, forensic experts were seen loading bags into police vans. A cordon had been erected around the residential semi-detached house site. It spans the intersection of Cayton Road and Runnymede Gardens.
I’m asking anyone with dash cam or cycle helmet footage to contact us if they were using the Western Avenue A40 Eastbound in the vicinity of Cayton Road and Welland Gardens between 13.15pm and 4.15pm,” said Detective Chief Inspector Jim Eastwood of the Met’s Specialist Crime Command. The elderly victim, who was riding a mobility scooter at the time, was in the area. It is critical that you make contact if you saw the victim or anyone acting suspiciously in the area.”
“This is an awful incident that will understandably cause considerable alarm,” said Chief Superintendent Sean Wilson, Ealing’s policing lead.
We are assisting our colleagues in Specialist Crime as they work to determine what happened and who is responsible for this heinous crime.” The public’s support is critical. Police and the community must work together to identify and remove violent offenders from our streets.”
Anyone with information that could assist police should call 101 and reference CAD 4691/16 Aug.
