The Tragic Murder of 14-Year-Old Jermaine Cools | Murdered at First Sight | Forensic Files

that picture he loves that car and would you remember when he couldn't drive it and he used to ask anyone to push him in
it in that picture do you remember how much he loved that Mike always wanted to take her back to the
park every day train was it was a real boy he was very active full of energy was running around
very much into football he learned how to ride his bike at two years old he was extremely proud of her he was so
determined and if he fell off he'd get back on I used to sit down and talk about everything man you're so happy
all the time as a teenager he was you feel like oh this guy is like a big man you know telling me what to do on even
though I'm the father but he's like he was a father telling what to do [Music] so that evening
a fight breaks out outside the takeaway shot the police have described it as a brawl and Jermaine cools 14 year old boy
who lives in the area enters that ball going to call sediment German beanstab and so my sister said to me just go go
go I just put the phone and I run to the hospital I don't even think I checked for cars already but I just run what
happened happened very quickly and changed the lives of Jermaine's family his brothers and the local community
resulting in a ferocious attack with a knife your group were clearly geared up and
ready for serious violence he didn't stand a chance he must have been terrified and in agony
I would wake up every morning for a split second I think it was a dream and everything was okay
go and look for Jermaine in this room and then it would hit me [Music] we were like soul mates he was my best
friend it's everything to me thank you [Music] foreign [Music] was born on the 4th of March 2007 it was
a Sunday um Julius was at work that day I was at home I recognized the pains but I was quite
early along it was only seven months I remember taking a taxi to the hospital and yeah they told me that I was in
labor and I think gsrf after a few hours it was a happy morning and everything started going smooth and
started going nicely I was amazed because he was Tiny Jermaine was only born like about five
pounds it was really small very premature but it didn't require any special care so I was amazed to see such
a small minuscule baby that was perfect which I mean was the completion of our family for us
June was the key to the family we used to do everything together from a baby it was just a gift in the world I know
you're just coming like like a gift to me to have people always laughing and joking running around always going and
talking to everybody it was very very close to me and always everywhere that I went if I had to leave to go to work and
he knew it was coming out that time he'd take my shoes and hide them my coat and
hide them so I couldn't leave I had to stay at home and it was it's an amazing chart I mean it
was one of the happiest kids you could find we used to do a lot of stuff together
but the priority was his mom he was very very very very very sensitive when it comes to his mom
he was very much into his friends his brother his older brother David scared for all the time
his computer games food eating every hour yeah it was black all your family together on
a Friday night when the school school on Saturday just all been the room together
playing this game it's all the food laugh joke foreign always together as a family unit you
know all his brothers just take advice from him when they have any problem first
person is to call is him and he's to give them advice what to do and try to talk to them it was he has a very very
loving kid there's not one day that goes by and he don't call me I'm like are you okay
is everything all right oh can I come see you we miss always check up on me that's
something about him always make sure he checks up on me you know Jermaine was caring
Joanna's loving Jermaine was wise Germany's crazy and happy adren is always a life and soul of any
room anywhere he went um he was loud confident but he also knew his limits he never he
never ever did anything he was it was very unique child I want to sleep and I wake up like to
three o'clock in the morning and Jimmy was in the kitchen sitting down facing outside
and I said you wanted to go to your bed and then tell me I just don't feel like sleeping today I don't know why
[Music] it was on at 8 30 9 I wake up I look in his room you'll stand on his room and I
left the house to go to work that day was just you know I just had a feeling I didn't wanted to go to work
just like I don't want to do nothing that day it was actually for November a sunny day
we spent the morning together I think around 12 I had to leave to go to work he came to the door with me and then he
watched me leave so when I got a little bit up the road and I could still see him outside on the
front doorstep what should we leave I turned on my back because that wasn't something
usual normally he would just shut the door and then I told him what he did why are you still standing outside go inside
and shut the door and he told me okay I'll see you later and told him yeah I'll see you later and I went I went to
work I never forget about the my sister called me wrong color for five because it was a member coming over and he had
to go to his grandma and I called Jimmy night quarter to six I said don't forget to go
by your grandmother I don't feel like you but I'm gonna go but I finished work kind of done some
shopping I bought some stuff at Germaine I was walking at the end of The High Street right when I find wrong and Julia
said called me to studies received a call from Delaney tremendous oldest brother to say that your mind had been
stopped it's about six o'clock in the evening on a stretch of the London Road near
West Croydon station it's a really busy street there's lots of shops and takeaways lots of Life on
that street so that evening a fight breaks out outside the takeaway shop the police have described it as a
brawl and Jermaine calls 14 year old boy who lives in the area [Music] brother is there with him and there's
CCTV footage which shows this group on the street and it's chaotic it's really hard to
figure out what's going on the theme would have been one of Chaos when you've got an incident in terms of
knives that are being used Jermaine cools is lying on the floor he's is helped by somebody on the street
into a car and he's taken to hospital I just left the shop I didn't care about nothing I left the
shop and I went to the hospital on the world sitting only for hours and hours I keep on asking them if I'm gonna
be okay and they said they don't know is Lauren is shaking and praying and I don't know
when we arrived I hadn't noticed initially but the front reception desk was full of blood I think my Jermaine
had been standing they wouldn't allow me to they told me there's a team of doctors working on him
I can't see him that's when I realized that whatever injuries it's got serious eventually the doctors came and got us
two lesson arrived from his restaurant at that point they took us into a side room
which made me realize it was even more serious they explained to me that tremendous
been seriously injured and that they were working to save his life [Music] just a day of course
I wish I could not go back to that day and change everything that happened but I can't
[Music] thank you I left two police officers got in the room with us I wasn't really sure of why
and then eventually the doctors came and advised us that they couldn't save tremendous
I don't know I keep on looking in the window all that they still thinking that he's gonna come back you know that there
is a wrong person that is not him I think at the moment they told me that my brain didn't digest it and I kind of
went into or a pilot I told them it's okay it's fine I didn't show any emotion I don't think I actually digested the
news that Jermaine lost his life that night or the next day I think it took maybe three to four days for this shock
to to wear off and for me to actually digest it gone [Music] unfortunately Croydon in 2021 is
described as the knife crime Capital because they have a lot of crimes there which involve knife crime gangs drugs
stabbings and unfortunately murders as well the victims and the perpetrators generally tend to be quite young so for
the officers to know at that time that they are now dealing with a murder of a young 14 year old child would have been
really hard for them to take [Music] to give give information I guess to journalists
as they're investigating because obviously they need to do their job so they can't give too much away
so in those early days the information was quite limited from the police [Music]
it's really important to try to find these perpetrators to bring them to justice as quickly as possible one of
the main reasons is for the preservation of evidence and to be able to locate the
weapon the other reason is because that individual may have some form of influence on other Witnesses they may
fear for their own safety and they will necessarily not want to speak out whilst
this individual is at large and out in an area that they know obviously homicide murder is always
going to be a high priority for the police but particularly in a case like this where the victim is a child and the
perpetrator is still at large this is a dangerous individual and he could go on to kill again
I was wondering why why would somebody stop Germany how would somebody do that to him
Within a couple of days but maybe within 48 hours at the police since they typically
they knew who was responsible that they're pretty sure they know no idea of who did her that they were looking to
locate that person and hadn't been able to so far they always maintained to read
it from the CCTV it had pertained early on even free to do bits that fed free later that they saw
that Jermaine was in this evictive and yeah obviously the police knew who the murderer was but then cited a lot of
people locally as well foreign is only 14. he's not got any gang affiliations he's not embroiled into
that kind of Lifestyle he doesn't even have any known enemies so from his family's perspective this is completely
out of the blue and is just inexplicable if I could have changed something about
that night maybe I'll just pray God that he wouldn't have been getting end up in a
situation because there was no no one could control what was going to happen at night
but I had magic to change something about that night you're probably staying at his house and
you're gonna come outside that line you're still home to be honest these pictures this is how I always
remember in I don't know he just was so mature and just like a fully developed young man
even though it was only 14. I literally saw him turn into an adult overnight like this
and just be happy [Music] we used to run all over the place and laugh at me [Music]
I used to walk everywhere [Music] let's go [Music] [Music] what happened happened very quickly
from what was a really lovely evening with his two brothers and Friends resulted in young Jermaine losing his
life being stabbed no less than seven times with a machete style knife not any kind of knife that you could just buy
off the shelves and absolutely horrific looking weapon for a young child to be laying on the
floor to see what was happening to him must have been absolutely petrifying and terrifying for him
and all four for all the people around him [Music] staggering to see the size of the knife
and then it goes on to the horrible moment where he lunges for Jermaine and even though you're watching it on screen
you can almost feel the urgency and the weight of his body lunging fourth he just isn't holding back at all he
lifts it up and then just goes straight into a stabbing motion which is horrific he saw that
opportunity as soon as Jermaine was down the second time that he would inflict lethal and fatal injuries onto this
young boy [Music] that this is a ferocious individual who has absolutely no consideration or
concern for what he's about to do and the fact was that he wanted to cause the most serious of harm to the point of
killing hyung-jermaine we now know that he stabbed Jermaine Poole seven times once to the chest and that was the Fatal
injury became quite aware quite quickly at a young age that most young boys tend to
carry a knife and he was always had that concern that he could be a victim to an eye he did
have conversations with me about carrying a knife because if not he'll become a victim to one
but I was really Dead Set against that life for him I told him when you carry a knife you know
it's gonna end in two ways which is that you couldn't be killed by that knife or
you couldn't kill somebody with that knife so I told him that I didn't really want
that for him his life he understood that he used to talk about that all the time
I feel guilty after that happened to him this is something I had to live for the
rest of your life is a pin that'll never go away one of the most significant moments in
that footage that you see a figure breaking off from the group all he's interested in is
not to be caught running as quickly as he can and then in the final video you see him actually
covering the knife so that it's hidden with the most likelihood is that he would have probably put that either down
his trousers or into his jacket because it's easier to to walk with using all the information and the
intelligence available the police will very quickly able to identify Marcus Walker as the suspect
I started to try and ask people about who is Marcus Walker and it come up you know that he was a gang member
apparently it was strange to Jimmy which I didn't know him Trent's life was a different path of
life it wasn't in the streets in a gang there's a family orientated young man you know there wasn't leeway
he would have ever have known Marcus will call any of his associates I think the fact that some members of
the press and some members of the public default to this idea that any young black man or black boy that's been
killed in a violent incident necessarily equates to some kind of gang violence I think that
boils down to systemic racism and that comes essentially from what what we're fed by the media I guess what we're fed
in popular culture in films um in TV programs Jermaine was just a normal kid he wasn't
Affiliated to any gangs he wasn't out there that evening to try and cause any trouble he wasn't out there involved in
any kind of criminal activity we know that because we know that through the family and through his friends local
community and through the schools the next day after that happened over did that to the police they then
confirmed with me and what happened verbally but I think around in London Road he would have arrived
there around 10 past six five past six by the time he walked to them it would have probably
been around quarter past six which is where the so-called brawl broke out which Manhattan moved from Delaney's
side the whole time Marcus Walker comes over to where the ball is happening and pushes Jermaine
backwards and the associate of Marcus Walker pushes him fully backwards out of the way onto the floor Marquez Walker
runs out from behind Jermaine withdrawing a massive machete and repeat at least stabs him from the back which
then rolls away to get away from the injuries and he just kept some repeatedly stabbing him you can see in the CCTV
data while stopping him he's looking at him is specifically aiming for his chest
the next clip is remarkable it shows Jermaine walking to the car he's being aided by a
member of the public we only see the back of him but he seems okay and the other striking thing about that bit of
footage is this catastrophic event has just occurred that is going to append everybody's lives
and you can see seconds after the attack everything just carries on as normal on
London Road people are walking to the shop people on their phones cars whizzing by
and in the middle of it all you've got this 14 year old boy who's just been fatally stabbed
doesn't know that he's going to die otherwise nature men wasn't going to be carrying a weapon or starting a fight
which never got into fights and it's been up countless various times that will different situations and not going into
physical science so I just couldn't actually believe that somebody could do something like that to
Jimmy [Applause] [Music] the police now know who the suspect is and they're trying assiduously to find
him but even with their efforts six weeks pass and they come up short so this must have
been quite disheartening and quite upsetting for the family because there's a chance that they might
not find Justice they probably know that the more time that passes the likelihood
of the police catching the perpetrator will decrease so like two to three weeks to me it was
a bit like everything was kind of died down um there wasn't much cause because there
was nothing to update me with there wasn't really much information fed back I was quite disappointed that
person that murdered my son is still out there living their life and enjoying their freedom
well my son had lost his life at their hands police officers will rely heavily significantly on community information
on community intelligence and witness information and obviously then you've got the other issues such as CCTV
forensics DNA anything that would support the investigation in order to bring the offenders to Justice
[Music] how do you plan a funeral for someone that shouldn't be having a funeral
you know how do you celebrate a life that shouldn't have ended at 14 years old I'd remember little Snippets of it
the car pulling up here and looking out of the window and knowing that that's hard to manage to be coming home at all
I remember bits and Bobs from the service of people standing up and saying various things relatives sharing their
memories [Music] most of all I just wanted it to be over so I got him and be alone and tried to
even begin to process what was going on [Music] you'll have what you call field Intelligence Officers and officers will
use a range of tactics some of those tactics may be covert and some of those will be over they'll be
looking at the movements of the perpetrator of Marcus who his associates were where he might hide out who he may
have gone to uh what would his normal movements be the first knew who he was he has been
even in trouble many times before their personal life they know that boy was violent that boy was looking to kill
someone I came to a point where he began to wonder if they will ever catch him especially when it had been you know his
six weeks down the line sometimes I did used to wonder if he will get the opportunity to leave the country and
ever face Justice [Music] he adored tipax music considering it was not from his generation
Torino's inspired to do his own music Tupac's got quite a lot of philosophy in his songs and
I think that's where Jermaine's interests lied that it was a bit more about real life instead of talking about
violence and things that are irrelevant were you like you like to sing you used to write his own songs he used to make
his own bit and sing in his room he obviously the studio there so he was very very into
music you have a lot of songs started but you never finished but Jermaine his oldest stepbrother
Delaney was his Idol he loved Delaney he loved having a big brother that was a man and while he was a young boy he
looked to Delaney in a similar way that he looked to Julius to teach him how to be a man
but he also looked upon him in the same way as a companion of his own age um so yeah there was a massive closeness
between the two of them considering one is the eldest and one is the youngest and an age group of you know
maybe 12 years or more didn't make a difference they were they were always together
first time I saw snow we went out well I think it was this area here it was really fun that day so it was
just it was just sliding down the heat and like the first time doing that he taught
me how to do it to be honest yeah that's funny we had a lot of memories in the short time of his life
14 years there's a lot of memories [Music] after Marcus attacked Jermaine he seen
running from the scene and he takes a taxi home and then in the early hours of the morning he tells his mother that
he's going out to get some food his mother clearly suspicious looks on a small iPad or tablet of his and she sees
that there's a conversation between Marcus and his friends where they are advising him to discard and lose his
clothing and phone because he's been involved in a stabbing Marcus then makes his way to a care home
where he is met by a female friend of his and he spends the night there in the afternoon he leaves that location
and then he disappears for six weeks where he is hiding away and he's been protected by either friends or others in
some parts of South London we know that that gang culture has kind of infested the entire community so what that means
is the locals might not report anything to the police maybe out of fear of Retribution from The Gangs or out of
loyalty to the individuals or both so this is a real struggle it's a hurdle for the police they often meet this wall
of Silence because of a general mistrust of the authorities as well it almost becomes an innate part of fabric of the
community itself they live by the code snitches get stitches the police eventually caught up with
Marcus Walker in a really interesting way they were called out on a completely separate
incident which happened to be the house that Marcus Walker was hiding out in and
they actually found him hiding behind a bed [Music] initially Walker tried to fob them off
by giving a false name but eventually he admitted to his identity when they arrested Marcus Walker and
they called me to tell me that they'd arrested him they told me that they're sorry it's
taken them so long they called me and said look you know this is a call that we would have liked to have given five
weeks ago but where you know all inside he's been arrested they did terminated it was an unrelated incident and that he
tried to to conceal his ID from the place which I wasn't surprised about any of it
because I kind of felt that would always be the case that it would be it would be
arrested by chance Marcus confessed to the officers that he was responsible for the murder of
um Jermaine but he initially only admitted to the possession of the knife and then when the evidence unfolded he
had no choice but to admit to the murder of Jermaine there was clear evidence of
him as being the main perpetrator and the instigator of that attack that was launched on that group in the early
stages and he was advised by his Council and solicitors to plead guilty because the evidence against him was
overwhelming I wish it was me that happened to not him because yeah yeah he had this life
ahead of him and just one day I couldn't protect him you know and that was the most important day
I wish I could have protected that there I don't know Marcus he's what everybody would
describe as a habitual knife carrier in the same way that any normal person would go out with their mobile phone and
wouldn't leave home without it you know what did he think was going to happen to him when he walked out the
front door if he had to carry Rambo knives zombie knives you know on his person it was clear and evidence that he was a
kind of young man who wanted Kudos amongst his own gang members by inflicting those type of injuries by
carrying the knives that he carried the bigger the knife the more sharper the weapon the type of weapon they carry
gives a more and more cudis and Status within the gangs that they work with [Music]
what they're doing to change us to live as a family as one people there is no change thank you Julie it's
a really important question there from Julia schools what are people doing to make a change a lot of pain here tonight
but also a lot of Hope a trial conventionally because he was trying to use a mental health route
played diminished responsibility he couldn't get a psychologist report so that was why the court process was
really drawn out one of the reasons was because while he was on a reminder in July 2022 he acquired an attempted
murder charge on an attack on a fellow inmate so that delayed everything in jermain's court proceedings
we know that there was an incident inside hmpe Felton whilst Marcus Walker was there
he rallied some other inmates and set out to attack another inmate he was calling this other inmate a snitch
and they've left this person you know with life-changing injuries they left him lying on the floor you
know in pools of blood and they laughed as they were taken away they mocked this in me
I wasn't surprised to hear about that kind of charge of behavior from an individual
of his nature when we got to December 31st 2022 I was advised by the family layers and officer
that he was advised legally to plead story as there's no viable defense for him and that's whatever when we attend the
court in the 9th of January when the trial side of the able to go away completely out of there wanting to or
goodness of his heart or wanting to take responsibility for his actions at all it was just because he
had no way forward the first court appearance he had attended in person just looked just
staring at him just wondering how an individual like that thanks why he killed my son I mean there is no
answer as to why he killed my son then there's no justification and there's not an answer that would ever
be appropriate it was only when sentencing was scheduled we were allowed to be all of
the CCTV held by the police as that was what was going to be used to prosecute Marcus Walker that we
saw the full City TV it's not very very clear footage but it's clear that a young boy is on the
floor being ferociously attacked by this 16 year old who is in possession of that
knife I think maybe it was watchable because tremendous life there he was sustained
his injuries there but he made it to hospital and because the last of the CCTV that you see is he walks to the car
[Music] and try to be strong he can't see pain in his eyes you can't see tear you can't
see fear he got up and he tried to be strong and and survive and fight and because of
that it made it easier to watch you know I don't think Liz and Jermaine in any shape or form would have ever been
something I could accept but that definitely makes it a million times harder to know that I had Marcus
Walker of walked away from my son my son would be here today and to know that you lost your child
your life your everything at the hands of I love her and division just to step it up like it it's
mortifying Marcus Walker was so ingrained in his own violent lifestyle that after he took
the life of 14 year old Jermaine whilst in custody and on remand he produced a drill video which showed Heath lack of
respect absolutely no remorse whatsoever for the Fatal loss of life of another child by singing and gloating about
Jermaine's mother crying and the fact that he'd taken the life of another like it meant absolutely nothing to him
fact that Walker actually writes and then records a rap video and he's taunting Jermaine's family about what
he's done shows this colossal lack of empathy clearly There's No Remorse it's all
rivardo it's all about showing off to your peers it's all about intimidating your rival gang members and and just
trying to look like the big man now you can imagine the stress and the pain for Jermaine's mum and dad and watching that
video not only have they lost their son they're now seeing the person who did it
bragging about it and showing no remorse I was angry infuriated but at the same time not surprised I
didn't expect much more from that type of individual so although it offended me because
you've met my son and now you're trying to you know disrespect his honor and disrespect our family
considering we were innocent victims less infuriating but honestly not something that I was
Surprise Play there's nothing you can say to somebody like that is it foreign for this to happen every day so you can
feel it you can feel what I'm feeling now we know that this entrancing is being televised today and the judge has said
that she wants that to act as a deterrent how do you feel about that do you think that will work I don't know
the fact that the sentencing was televised I think it's really really important for a number of reasons mostly
to show young children young kids that are out there that are carrying knives consequences of their actions and what
impact it can have when carrying knives the judge said in her sentencing that if
you're going out with those kinds of weapons on you you're looking for violence looking for something to get
involved in Marcus and his friends were geared up for serious violence that he'd
had an intent to kill Jermaine calls Marcus Walker you can stay seated until I tell you to stand up
there is no sentence which I can pass which can relieve the pain and loss which you caused
nothing can bring Jermaine back no term of years can even begin to compensate for his family's loss
for the murder detention at his Majesty's pleasure the minimum term before you will be
considered for released by the parole board will be one of 19 years would have ever been enough and I think
the sentencing in general for juveniles this week I think that's something that was kind of
put together a long time ago when juveniles work committing murder at the rate they are
now not appropriate at all he's gonna do the same thing he did he's gonna do it again he's gonna glorify it because
everybody in life have have something they enjoy doing that's that's that's what make him happy that was that's his
Hobby 2021 was terrible year for teenage stabbings in London it was the worst on
record and Jermaine cools was the youngest he was 14 years old and I think sometimes
we we forget because we think of these young people as statistics and we forget that
domain has a family and they've been left behind now their lives are completely empty
in the last couple of years Croydon and the local police and partners are working really really hard with local
communities to eradicate them off gangs and they still have their challenges but
it is getting somewhat better in Croydon here you have Jermaine who is 14 years of age and then you've got Marcus he was
17 years of age when he was sentenced and he will be released when he's 36 years of age he'll still have

When 14-year-old Jermaine Cools is walking home from a school and a fight breaks out, he is attached with a machete. Jermaine’s family is devastated when he succumbs to his injuries and the community is left reeling, wondering why someone would do such a thing to a young boy. Murdered At First Sight is a true crime documentary series that tells the first-hand stories of the most complex and hard-to-solve homicide cases: murders committed by strangers.

Brief Summary

Jermaine Cools, 14, was fatally stabbed in Croydon, highlighting the issue of knife crime and its impact on families and communities.

Key points

Jermaine's Early Years. Jermaine was a vibrant child, full of energy and joy, cherished by his family.
The Night of the Incident. A chaotic brawl leads to a tragic stabbing, changing lives forever.
The Aftermath. The family grapples with the loss of Jermaine, a bright young boy taken too soon.
The Impact of Gang Culture. Gang culture creates a wall of silence, complicating police investigations.
The Arrest of Marcus Walker. Marcus Walker was arrested in a surprising twist during a separate incident.
Marcus Walker's Lack of Remorse. After the murder, Walker produced a drill video showing no remorse for his actions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was my best friend, it's everything to me.

2:07WatchOct 23, 2023

Tension

80/ 100High tension

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