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Police appeal for more witnesses to come forward as Asake crowd crush investigation continues

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 20 March 2023

London police have again appealed for people who witnessed the fatal crowd crush that occurred at the Brixton Academy last December to come forward with any information they might have that could help with the police force’s ongoing investigation.

The new appeal for information came as officers revealed that a woman who was seriously injured during the crush remains in hospital in a critical condition three months later. She is one of the three people who were hospitalised in a critical condition on the night of the incident. The other two – Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson – died in the following days.

The crowd crush occurred during the third of three sell out shows by Asake. The venue’s licence from local authority Lambeth Council has been suspended ever since as London’s Metropolitan Police investigate what factors contributed to the incident.

At the time it was claimed that the crush began when people without tickets tried to force their way into the building. However, there have also been allegations that the venue was understaffed and that some security personnel were involved in a ticketing scam that would have increased the number of people in the Brixton Academy on that night.

Urging anyone with relevant information who is yet to speak to police to come forward, Detective Superintendent Dave Kennett from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command said last week: “If you were there when this tragic incident happened, if you have footage or pictures of the evening, please come forward and speak to my team”.

“We need your help to establish what happened so that we can provide answers to the families and loved ones of those who were so seriously or fatally injured”, he added, according to Southwark News.

“We know there were thousands of people there and that many will have seen what happened. If you were there please don’t ignore this plea – imagine the families who are struggling to come to terms with their loss and do the right thing, share what you saw with my team who are waiting to her from you”.

“We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has come forward so far”, he went on, “but we still need more perspectives of the events that took place in the crowd that night”.

“We are carrying out a comprehensive analysis of any available CCTV footage in and around the scene, but, if you have footage filmed that night we’d very much like to see it”.

“Footage shared on social media immediately after the incident showed dozens of people recording what was happening – we know that there is a vast amount of material on people’s phones, sharing that material with us would take just minutes of your time”.

The detective concluded: “Two people have died and a third is still very seriously injured and we owe it to them, their families and anyone else affected by this incident to leave no stone unturned”.

People can provide relevant information to the investigation here.