The adoptive family of a man stabbed to death are urging people to “put down the knives”. Kunta Ceesay, 25, was fatally stabbed in Bristol on Friday September 20.
Yarel Jallow, 28, who was part of Kunta’s adoptive family in the UK, hopes to raise awareness of the tragedy of knife crime. She is also fundraising to have ‘kind and caring’ Kunta sent to home to the Gambia – to be buried with his parents.
She said the painter and decorator Kunta was a ‘selfless man’ who did voluntary work and helped with food banks and delivering and collecting furniture to people in need. Yarel, who also lost a brother to stabbing six years ago, said: “We are angry at the world and this generation.
“This has happened to multiple families across the UK – it is not just us that have gone through this tragedy. Something has got to stop: my nine-year-old is never going to see his uncle again. Because of what? Put down the knives.”
Kunta lived with Yarel, her husband Alagie, 38, and their two children, who are nine and 14-months-old, in Northamptonshire before he moved to Bristol this year. The family described Kunta as a ‘kind and caring man who was a light in so many lives’.
Yarel said: “A lover of music and African drums, Kunta was always lively and he would make anyone smile. Kunta would always take his nephew to the park and play football for hours on end and sing to his baby niece.
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“As my son said when I had to brake the sad news ‘he was one of the best people I’ve ever known in my life’.” The heartbroken family have expressed their gratitude to the emergency services for their attempts to save Kunta, and the police for their investigation.
Yarel and Alagie had to visit Bristol on the weekend Kunta died to confirm and ID his body. They explained how they were ‘overwhelmed’ by the tight knit community they saw Kunta had been a apart of in Bristol.
But they also became aware of a video being shared on social media of Kunta’s lifeless body. Yarel explained: “We had to revisit his last steps and see all these things that built up to the moment. It is good to know he was loved and wasn’t alone – he had so many friends.
“Family and friends want to see justice served and we believe that will happen.”
Yarel added: “People have to top thinking its ok to carry a weapon that will fatally hurt someone. The ironic thing is that there was a knife surrender bin metres away from where Kunta was stabbed.
“There are people going to the street playing God – thinking they can take someone’s life. The government has to do more and make these crimes more punishable.
“He had whole life ahead of him and didn’t have a chance to have kid. Seek support – it makes you strong, not weak. I never want to have this conversation with my kids saying you have lost someone else they really and truly loved.”
You can donate here to help send Kunta’s body back to his homeland: https://gofund.me/cf1f5438
Shakawan Siddiqi, 32, of Wade Street in St Jude’s, has been charged with murder following the death. He appeared at Bristol Magistrates Court on, Monday, September 23, where the case was sent to Bristol Crown Court. Two women, aged 36 and 47, arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender have been released under investigation
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