THE parents of fatal stab victim were among the visitors at an emotive art exhibition documenting the impact of killings.
'Famous for the wrong reasons' by Sal Idriss was showcased at the Vestry House Museum, in Vestry Road, Walthamstow, featuring three Waltham Forest families who have lost young loved ones to crime.
Agha Marzooq Ali and his wife Zubeda Naz Ali, of Greenleaf Road, Walthamstow, lost their son 22-year-old Shakir Ali in 2001 when he was brutally murdered in front of his mother.
Shakir and his wife of four years were expecting their first child at the time.
Gifford Mullins, 36, of Bushwood Road, Leytonstone, Andre Morgan, 30, of Winchmore Hill, North London and Lewis Smallon, 28, of Granville Road, Walthamstow, were sentenced to life at the Old Bailey in 2002 for the murder.
The couple made the emotional visit to the opening of the three-day showcase last Thursday to see their portrait - taken in the spot where their son was killed in Church Hill Road, Walthamstow.
Mr Idriss, whose 16-year-old brother Nassirudeen Isa-Osawe was stabbed to death at a bus stop, said: “It has been very emotional because while they are thinking about their loved ones I am thinking about my brother.
“But the more people I speak to the more it helps me to get over my own grief.”
Ahmet Gomulu, 18, from Enfield, stabbed Mr Isa-Osawe in a row at an Islington bus stop inDecember 2007. He was convicted of murder last October.
Speakers at the event included borough commander chief superintendant Mark Benbow and Jonathan O'Ddea, of Apex Arts, which contributed funding to the project.
Mr Idriss will now begin profiling families in the other London boroughs before exhibiting the completed work at a later date in central London.
He is also planning on working with the young offenders or those on the fringe of crime to involve them in the project and arrange for them to meet with the families.
He added: “The hope is that people will see the exhibition and if they are offenders or on the brink of offending, I hope it will deter them from falling into crime.”
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