Knife crime: 'I’ll do anything I can to save other families from our fate'
Abdul Raguragui: 'Knife crime needs to be addressed. Everyone should do their part – celebrities, social media, everyone – or we face a very dark future in Ireland.' Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin
WHEN THE news broke recently about a young man stabbed to death in Dublin, Abdul Raguragui broke down in tears, reliving the horror of his own son’s violent death.
Azzam Raguragui, his kind, generous, athletic, affectionate son, was stabbed to death after an argument about a stolen bicycle in Finsbury Park, in south Dublin, on May 10, 2019.
The 18-year-old budding business entrepreneur played for Dundrum FC, trained with MMA star Paddy Holohan and had played GAA in the Aviva stadium.
He was loved in his local area. When he saw elderly neighbours arrive home, he rushed out to help them with their shopping and cleared paths outside their houses whenever it snowed.
“When I saw what happened last week it broke my heart all over again. They even look alike. And they were both so sporty,” Mr Raguragui, a HSE worker, said.
“I couldn’t stop the tears.
Mr Raguragui remembers that last day Azzam left home, when nothing yet hinted of the horror that was to come.
“That last day at home he hugged and kissed me – he always did that. I said ‘take care of yourself’ when he was walking out the door. He said ‘don’t worry daddy, see you later’. I was reading a book at home later that day when someone knocked on the door, they were crying, saying Azzam’s been stabbed."
“I don’t know how I got in the car or drove but I drove to Finsbury Park. I parked by Dundrum Library, I dropped the keys but just left them there and went straight to the ambulance.
“I said ‘let me see him. I want to see him alive even if it’s only for five seconds.’ My wife just collapsed.
“They said ‘Azzam is in a very critical condition, we’ll try to save his life’. Then I knew he would probably die.
“Azzam had been waiting 35 minutes for the ambulance. In the heart of Dublin they were waiting that long. I think the operator thought the first call was a prank.
“We had to follow the ambulance to St Vincent’s Hospital.
“After we got to hospital I went to get the children. Then my wife rang to say that Azzam had died.
“I’m lucky I didn’t have an accident that day. I didn’t even know how to park the car.
“We’re still suffering from what happened.”
Mr Raguragui watched the moments before and after his son’s death on CCTV throughout the trial, which resulted in a manslaughter conviction and a seven-and-a-half-year sentence in November for a 17-year-old who could not be named as he was a minor.
Mr Raguragui watched on CCTV as his son’s attackers hunted him down, when Azzam asked for a stolen bicycle to be returned.
He was attacked in the park as he waited for a friend to attend nearby Clonskeagh Mosque to break their fast in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims abstain from food and liquids from dawn until dusk.
Azzam was attacked and stabbed. He ran away but slipped. His attackers followed him and continued the attack after he lay curled in a foetal position on the ground.
They were later seen on CCTV celebrating, giving each other high-fives minutes after the deadly attack.
The defendant escaped a murder conviction because it was not proved that the fatal wound was inflicted while Azzam had fallen and lay bleeding on the ground.
The defendant’s barrister argued that the fatal 9cm chest wound which severed an artery, causing massive blood loss, was inflicted during the initial stages of the fight when his client was "acting in self defence or in defence of his friends".
The fact the defendant brought the knife with him to the park that day “was a seriously aggravating factor” Judge Paul McDermott said.
The defendant’s failure to seek assistance for Mr Raguragui after stabbing him five times was a further aggravating factor.
Judge McDermott also noted the defendant had chased Azzam, assaulting him after he fell, in a “cowardly” way.
Mr Raguragui wants to appeal the conviction.
Speaking in court, he said he couldn’t get the image of his son’s attackers high-fiving each other after the killing out of his head.
His wife Hajiba, who was still too upset to talk for this interview, asked in court why her “loving, kind, gentle” son was taken from her in an argument over a bicycle. She wants justice for Azzam.
“The first thing everyone would notice about Azzam was his smile,” Mr Raguragui said in court.
“I never remember him without that smile, he was the light of the house. The brightness in every room. But suddenly that brightness is now gone.”
On the details that emerged about that day, Mr Raguragui said: “My son was asking for his bike back. On Friday, he met two of the gang at school and one of them said they’d ask for it back.
“When they told the others that Azzam was insisting on getting the bike back, someone volunteered to deal with him, he did not even know Azzam. He took a knife with him.
“I saw everything on CCTV. They went looking for him that day. The person who killed my son didn’t even know him.
“They stopped at a few places first. At Dundrum centre they went up to a boy that looked like my son but he told them he wasn’t Azzam.
“It was Ramadan, my son was in the park waiting for a friend to go break their fast at the Mosque, which is nearby, when the gang came.
“One of them said, ‘Azzam, can I talk to you?’ Then they punched him. My son was looking for his glasses and they stabbed him.
“He ran away about 15m and he slipped.
“Two people started kicking him and the killer jumped on him and stabbed him two, three, four times.
“The barrister said that the stabbing happened the first time, before Azzam slipped. They said they were fighting in self-defence.
“But this is illogical. If you knew you had stabbed someone five times why would you run after them and attack them again?
“And he got a manslaughter conviction.
“It’s crazy. I don’t understand how the jury came to that decision. It means that children carrying knives now feel more protected by the law.
“That needs to change. If you carry a knife you’re not a little kid anymore – you’re a criminal.”
After Azzam’s death, Mr Raguragui vowed to campaign against knife crime to save other families from what became their own devastating fate.
“Knife crime needs to be addressed. Everyone should do their part – celebrities, social media, everyone – or we face a very dark future in Ireland,” Mr Raguragui said.
“Especially influencers on TikTok and Instagram and Government should encourage that. Teenagers are not watching RTÉ or Virgin or reading the newspapers and you cannot start the battle in a different field.
“Impressionable teenagers do not listen to politicians talking in the Dáil.
“Education is key and it has to start early – from primary school.
“Education is like a vaccination against this deadly disease. If children are educated about knife crime in primary school when they get to secondary school – when this all starts – they’re prepared.”
Mr Raguragui hopes to climb mountains and walk around Ireland as a pilgrimage in memory of his son, who loved to travel and see the world, while raising awareness about knife crime.
Although he is currently restricted to his 5km around Marley Park, Dublin, he will get back to his first challenge of climbing the 50 peaks in Wicklow and 43 in Dublin before walking from Dublin to Wexford.
“He travelled with me through every corner of Ireland. He liked travelling. So when the restrictions lift I want to walk from Dublin to Wexford to Waterford to raise awareness about knife crime.
“My son’s gone now but I don’t want any other family to suffer the way we have.
“And we’re still suffering. Everything reminds me of him.”
Azzam was well-known and loved in the area, Mr Raguragui said.
“He was helpful, you’d always see him at tournaments and soccer matches, he played Gaelic at the Aviva stadium, he had a blue belt in Taekwondo. He was a very active guy.
“He was a very helpful neighbour. As soon as he saw someone elderly arrive home from shopping he’d run out to carry their bags. If it snowed, he went and cleared a path outside their house.
“Some 90-year-old neighbours followed his funeral to the graveyard. They have been crying in our house about his death."
The family are originally from Morocco but moved to Ireland 21 years ago. When they returned to visit family during the summer, Azzam, who spoke fluent Arabic despite being born in Ireland, would give all his money to the poor.
“Azzam would give all his money away when we were there,” Mr Raguragui said. “He’d say, ‘daddy, I cannot see poor people’, and he’d give them his money. He was very generous.
“He’d leave the house with his jacket [in Ireland] and come back without it. His arms would be blue. He’d have given it to a friend who had no coat and had to make a longer journey home.
“People would call to the house to borrow his clothes, he couldn’t say no to people.
“He was a very helpful, very generous and very sporty man.
“He was proud to be Irish, we all are, and I’ll do anything I can to save other families here from our fate.”
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