Two work colleagues sat in a Range Rover, stuck in rush hour traffic on one of Manchester's busiest highways. An otherwise uneventful commute soon turned into a journey they would never forget. Loud banging had started to ring out from a car nearby.
The two friends couldn't hear what was being said, but it was clear an argument had broke out. The banging was so loud, at first one of them thought it was a gunshot. But this was no car crash, or road rage attack.
Instead, what they were witnessing was the start of the latest chapter in Manchester's shocking knife crime epidemic. Just minutes later a 16-year-old boy, a nephew of an England footballer, was murdered after a high speed chase.
READ MORE : Two more young men face life sentences after being found guilty of murdering 16-year-old
His killers were other young men, who relentlessly hunted Rhamero West down before one of them, 19-year-old Ryan Cashin, knifed him several times. Rhamero, a nephew of ex-Man City and England international Shaun Wright-Phillips, would have turned 17 days after he was brutally murdered. He had started a college course that day.
After his brutal death, his devastated family vowed that they wanted justice. But the teenager who stabbed him did all he could to avoid it. Cashin, who now faces a life sentence, told his mother he was going on the run.
For over a month he was to lay low, as detectives tasked with hunting down Rhamero's killer launched a manhunt. He had made an apparent confession to his mother that he had stabbed Rhamero. The day after the murder, Cashin left the family home in tears after an emotional conversation with his mother.
Cashin was caught and put on trial. But even then his desperate lies continued, claiming he knew the true identity of a mystery man who had murdered Rhamero, but refused to name him. Although he faces a lengthy sentencing before being released, Cashin will be able to reunite with his mother.
But a senseless and unexplained feud, a murder with no overt motive, ripped away Rhamero's family of their future with him. Two other young men also face life sentences after they were jointly convicted of murder, despite not being accused of stabbing Rhamero, under the controversial joint enterprise law.
A 17-year-old boy who ran at Rhamero with a knife, as well as Giovanni Lawrence, 20, said to be a driver of one of two stolen BMWs which pursued Rhamero, were convicted after prosecutors argued that they encouraged or assisted the killing.
Cashin said he'd never met Rhamero before killing him. He was part of the chasing pack which had pursued him through south Manchester. The 17-year-old boy who did admit knowing Rhamero was the attacker leading the chase, who ran after him with a knife. Cashin then grabbed the weapon from him.
Cashin and the 17-year-old had been out joyriding in the back of two stolen BMWs, earlier on September 9 last year. Cell site evidence revealed that phones linked to Cashin and Lawrence travelled to Middleton in a stolen BMW 3 series stolen the day before, to meet a BMW 1 series, stolen hours earlier.
The young men were all friends, and lived near each other. The 17-year-old was a basketball player, playing for the Manchester Magics team, before the pandemic interfered and prevented them from playing. Cashin, who had ambitions to become a dog breeder, met Lawrence when they rode BMX bikes together at the Manchester Velodrome years earlier as children.
But it wasn't Cashin's first brush with the law. He'd previously admitted being in a stolen car which was caught driving dangerously two years before the murder. He was later questioned by police after a knife found in another car was found to bear his prints. Cashin denied all knowledge of the knife, and was not prosecuted.
The circumstances were strikingly similar on that Thursday evening in September last year. Heading back to Manchester at about 5pm, the fateful confrontation with Rhamero was to follow soon after. Later the 17-year-old was seen hanging out of the window of one of the BMWs. He was marshalling the troops, the target being spotted.
Rhamero was seen on the Princess Parkway at about 5.45pm. He would be stabbed minutes later. Shocked motorists looked on as a stolen BMW driven by Rhamero was attacked. The 17-year-old hit the window with a knife, claiming he just wanted to 'scare' Rhamero and his friends inside.
But what followed revealed how intent he was on doing serious harm. Realising the serious peril he was in, Rhamero sped away as the two stolen BMWs followed in hot pursuit. So desperate he was to get away, that he crashed into a Ford Ranger on Upper Chorlton Road, then ploughed into a tree.
The car now useless, the chase continued on foot. The 17-year-old ran after Rhamero armed with a knife. He slowed up, with Cashin arriving on foot shortly after and taking the knife from him. In his last moments, Rhamero banged on doors to try and seek sanctuary. His pleas were sadly in vain.
Cashin caught up and stabbed him to death. A horrified neighbour screamed out, pleading with the killer to stop. He fled after BMWs regrouped, leaving the 16-year-old to bleed out, suffering serious wounds to his legs.
The background to this deadly feud was never fully explained. The 17-year-old claimed he saw Rhamero driving at a drug dealer the defendant had just bought cannabis from, and wanted to talk to with him about it. He'd chased Rhamero to 'scare' him, he claimed.
But the murder provoked further soul searching about Manchester's knife crime epidemic. Figures recently revealed that serious youth violence offences have risen by 200 per cent over the past two years in the city of Manchester alone.
Even during the lockdowns, when many were stuck at home, knife offences went up by four per cent in Greater Manchester in 2020-21. And sadly Rhamero was not the only young person to die.
In the following months 16-year-old Kennie Carter, 17-year-old Alan Szelugowski, and 20-year-old Dylan Keelan all died after being stabbed. Josiah Norman, 17, and Reece Tansey, 15, had also been killed in the months prior Rhamero's death.
In the aftermath of those three deaths, stepped up stop and search patrols across the region. Mayor Andy Burnham also spoke out, and appealed for everyone to help tackle the problem. GMP say their Violence Reduction Unit is working with schools and organisations to address knife crime. Rhamero's family are also doing their bit.
Manchester’s first life-saving 'bleed safety cabinet' has been installed in at the Place Library in Fallowfield, and includes instructions and equipment to help stem blood flow in the crucial time before paramedics arrive.
"Enough is enough, put down the knives. Save our kids' lives," a note in the cabinet reads, alongside a picture of Rhamero. The campaign comes too late to save their 'beautiful son' Rhamero, but the family are using their grief to tackle a grave issue which is tragically cutting short the lives of young people across Greater Manchester.
