UAE | Crime

Dubai Police say sarcastic comments at salon ended in murder of teenager

The argument started with "ridiculous" remarks that the boys exchanged with each other.

By Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter
Published: 00:00 March 7, 2010

Dubai: A 13-year-old Emirati boy was stabbed to death, allegedly by four Emirati teenagers over "a silly and a childish argument", a senior police official said on Saturday.

There were 13 stab wounds on the body, which was found in a pool of blood in Al Rashidiya on Thursday evening.

The suspects have been arrested.

Parental guidance could have prevented theunfortunate incident, the police official has said.

"It saddens me to speak about the gruesome killing of a 13-year-old boy who was found covered in a pool of blood in Al Rashidiya on Thursday evening," the source told Gulf News.

He said the argument started with "ridiculous" remarks that the boys exchanged with each other. It started with a teenager, who is believed to be the brother of the victim, making sarcastic comments to another while he went out of the barber shop earlier that evening.

The problem was not in a single encounter; it involved a number of small separate arguments taking place with different teenagers who all knew each other in one way or another, he added.

The person who was mocked had a verbally charged argument with the brother of the victim and threatened he would beat him up badly, according to investigations carried by the investigative unit of Dubai Police.

Later that evening, the teenager called his "gang of friends", who are between 14 and 16 years old, to head towards the house of the person who mocked him.

On their way to his residence in Al Rashidiya, they came across his brother who was just getting out of his residence. Upon encountering the 13-year-old victim, they beat him up. "Two of the teenage suspects had knives with them but only one of them used his knife to hit the victim. He was stabbed around 13 times mostly in his stomach," said a source who worked closely on the investigations.

The incident happened around 8.30pm on Thursday and it was witnessed by some of the residents in the area who reported the matter to the operations room of Dubai Police.

Collapsed

The four teenagers involved in the fighting had fled the area after the victim had collapsed on the entrance gate of his villa.

"The four suspects were arrested within hours from committing the crime, and were hiding in different areas in Al Warqa and Al Rashidiya.

The family of the victim was very cooperative as were the families of the suspects.

The suspects were arrested with the assistance of their brothers," said the source working on the investigations.

The four teenage suspects did not have any criminal record with Dubai Police, he said.

"This incident could have been prevented if parental guidance was there. These teenagers need to be directed and monitored for their behaviour and with whom they hang out.

"Parents need to constantly be present and take active roles in their children's upbringing," said Major Saeed Al Ayalli, acting director of the Criminal Investigation Division of Dubai Police, while adding that murders involving minors are considered rare in Dubai.

Canine power: Dog finds weapon

The crime weapon, a knife, was found a few kilometres away from the crime scene by a police dog, Mahu, a five-year-old German shepherd. Mahu has been trained by Dubai Police since he was a puppy.

"Mahu found the weapon lying in between a bunch of trees in Al Rashidiya," his trainer said.

The task given to such dogs is quite challenging since the scent of the object differs, he said.

Do you have teenage children? How do you monitor their activities and behaviour? What are the biggest challenges you face in raising your child?

Comments (18)

Added 16:45 March 7, 2010

this area and satwa are hubs of juvienle delequency. the police should be more involved with the local youth in the area. rowdy behaviour and lewd behaviour must be controlled. empty mind is a devils workshop. It is not the frits time in this area that these incidents have happened. I think discreet police patrolling should be encouraged and parents should be held to account on the childs movements!!

Anonymous, DUBAI, Afghanistan

Added 15:30 March 7, 2010

An unfortunate event which caused an innocent life. Truely an eye opener and learing lesson for all parents to keep a watch on who our kids hang around with and what they do while they are out with friends. It's unbeliveable and shocking to see that a few new generation kids have soo much hatred and anger these days. A couple of days ago i was threatned for life by this teenager who had parked his car in my allocated space and when i told him that spot was allocated to me the teenager was soo upset and angry and started abusing me, calling me names and in this angry shouted at me in public that i will kill you.

Faiz Shariff, Dubai, Australia

Added 14:43 March 7, 2010

One thing I noticed while living in Dubai, was the lack of recreation programs and facilities for youth at the government level (yes, there are many for profit classes and camps. I'm speaking of public recreational opportunities that are at a low cost or free and widely available). Unfortunately, sometimes when kids get bored and aren't surrounded by positive motivators, they tend to get into mischief. it is each Emirates' responsibility to have a functioning and progressive parks and recreation department for the benefit of its citizens.

Sara D., Hillsboro, Oregon, United States

Added 14:40 March 7, 2010

Its a sad state of affairs and even sadder to make people aware at the cost of one innocent life. The lifestyle in this region has changed so dramatically that each resident family national or expat is going through the same cultural influence that is confusing and conflicting. With limited resoruces for enabling personality development through external activities children are left with mall culture, television programmes and electronic games to interact with leaving little understanding of values, culture and human coexistence. This comes out in brutal force through conflicts and frustration as youth need to express themselves.Small provocations lead to large quarrels and control of one's physical reactions can be overidden by the need to express oneself and display superiority. Parents and the governement too need to find ways of engaging children in activities that influence their beahviour and not leave them to stray around deciding their own ways of leisure. Becoming more materilistic parents have become more distant than they were ten years ago. It is s serious threat to the very exisitence of this generation and needs to be looked at collectively regardless of religion, nationality or gender.

Anonymous, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Added 13:54 March 7, 2010

Its' not limited only within guidance of parents, it has to be taken as a social issue, even though it is being worst one, recently similar reports has come from same area of Rashidiya. Due to the severe effect of globalisation in this region, parents doesn't have time to look out of their children. Although teachers have great role to structuring the character of children, but they just perform for money, not to be considered as great role in development of new generation by inspiring them on reading the book, developing creativity based on children interest etc.... this is a just symptom of defective social set up, it will spread across the entire society if it is not corrected by authorities and society.

Shafeek Mattool, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Added 13:52 March 7, 2010

I have 3 teenage kids and whilst I agree that parental guidance is essential there is a very grave danger of absolving these boys of all responsibility if too much emphasis on parental care is given. At their age they know the difference between right and wrong. They made a decision to take knives with them so from the start they intended to do more than just punch and beat up their victim. This element of pre-meditation is very worrying. Furthermore the poor victim suffered 13 stab wounds - not just one wound that might be explained as a rash act carried out in haste or anger. The boy who did this thought about it beforehand, took the knife to help him do it and with 13 stab wounds intended to do as much damage as possible to the victim. No amount of parental care could have prevented this. The aggressor is a danger to society and deserves the maximum jail sentence for a cold blooded, pre-meditated murder of an innocent life.

Anonymous, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Added 13:43 March 7, 2010

This is a very serious problem that needs to be tackled at the earliest. Parents need to take special care to note that their children don’t carry knives or sharp weapons. I noticed a group of teenagers in hor al anz a couple of days back playing with daggers. I was shocked. I was noticing these boys who were trying to make fun of all the passing women near talal supermarket. It was a group of teenagers all aged between 11 to 15. There were some younger brats as well in the gang. At one point they were passing comments on a young girl. At that moment i stared at them. One of them used a vulgar word at me. At this point i could not resist so went forth and caught hold of the boy and reprimanded him. Without listening to me the young brat hit me and ran. I chased him and caught him. Then another from the gang flashed a knife at me( he may be 12 years old). It shocks me to know that parents allow their teenage children to carry knives and sickles. Are they playthings? We can’t blame the children as they are too young to know what they are doing. They are influenced by movies, we need to blame the parents who are not strict and who are so careless. When children exhibit some violent nature or carry knives as playthings the onus is on the parents to educate them. Otherwise such incidents are going to be commonplace and more will be victims.

Anonymous, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Added 12:58 March 7, 2010

As an Emirati, it is very shameful for me to see that these type of people still exist, they are people with no ethical background, no morals whatsoever and their behavior sickens me. They benefit the society in no meaningful way, in fact they only harm our image and ruin our reputation as Emirati.

Mohammad Al Mulla, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Added 12:27 March 7, 2010

this incident is really shocking and shows the way kids are brought up.im resident of satwa for past 16yrs.i often see group of teenage boys behaving in immoral way.you will see thier car stopped in the middle of the street and the driver will be talking to other boys sitting inside his car. not bothered to see the traffic behind his car waiting to give way.no use. i wonder if parents watch their behaviour. you will seldom see indian teenage boy behaving like this in dubai or in thier home country.This is called discipline and respect for others which is lacking in teenager boys.if police watch them closely and restrict their movements im sure they will start to behave instead of stopping thier vehicle in the middle of the street to talk to their freinds.and stop passing sarcastic remarks and understand that we are not aliens and offcourse we deserve respect.

Anonymous, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Added 12:22 March 7, 2010

This is despicable. These boys should be sent to jail and severely punished. This would teach both the culprits and their parents a good lesson and go as a warning to the rest of us.

Anonymous, Dubai, United Arab Emirates