Nottingham attack suspect named as engineering graduate at same university of two victims
15 June 2023, 15:23 | Updated: 16 June 2023, 14:33
The suspect in the three killings in Nottingham, two being student, has been named, with officers continuing to question him.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Valdo Amissão Mendes Calocane, thought to be a 31-year-old West African man living legally in the UK, is being questioned in custody by officers over the Nottingham attack.
Police said on Thursday that he had been a student at Nottingham University, where two of the victims, Barnaby Webber and Grace Kumar, were studying. Officers said they did not think this was related to the killings.
A Nottingham University brochure listed Calocane as a 2022 graduate in mechanical engineering.
Three people were killed and three more injured in a stabbing and van attack throughout the city in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Listen and subscribe to Unprecedented: Inside Downing Street on Global Player
Barnaby and Grace, two 19-year-old University of Nottingham students, and Ian Coates, a 66-year-old caretaker, died in the attacks. One man is still in a critical condition in hospital after the car attack.
A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police said on Thursday: "A team of dedicated detectives is continuing to question the suspect and building up a strong picture of what happened that morning.
"This has included CCTV gathering, forensics, eye-witness accounts and searching a number of properties in the city.
"They added that they believed the suspect to have been a former University of Nottingham student, but don't think his this was connected to the attack."
It emerged on Wednesday that the suspect was known to MI5 because he turned up to the agency's London headquarters and tried to get in.
He was told to move on and his name was taken down when he arrived at Thames House and knocked on the door in August last year.
His name is understood to have come up as spies searched for any information about the man after the attacks happened early on Tuesday.
"He turned up one day and literally started banging on the door. He was moved on and logged," a security source told The Sun.
Meanwhile Suella Braverman visited Nottingham on Thursday to lay a wreath commemorating the victims.
The Home Secretary also included a hand-written note that read: "In memory of those who lost their lives, those who were injured and everyone who loves them.
"We are with you and with all the people of Nottingham."
A vigil was held on Wednesday night to mourn all three victims, where the fathers of Grace and Barnaby paid tribute to their children.
