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

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.

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