The mother of a teenage boy who was shot dead has urged the public to come forward with any information which could help find her son’s killer eight months on.
Rene Graham was just 15 years old when he was killed in Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance Park, Ladbroke Grove, on 21 July 2024.
He had been attending a warm-up event for the Notting Hill Carnival with friends. But the family fun day turned into tragedy when Rene was gunned down in front of hundreds of revellers.
“It’s broken, shattered my life… It’s killing me on the inside,” says his mother Janay John-Francois, who says her son was a “vibrant” teenager, with the “biggest heart”.
“I’m fuming about it. I’m fuming because right now it seems I’m not going to get justice for my son,” says Ms John-Francois.
“How does that happen?” his mother asks. “In broad daylight with over a thousand people in that small park?… it’s beyond me.”
Ms John-Francois says the grieving process cannot begin until she has answers and she will not feel safe until her son’s killer is caught.
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“I go down that road and I am looking over my shoulder. I don’t know who it could be, and that messes up your head. Because you are thinking, is my family safe? Do they know who I am?” says Ms John-Francois.
“You can’t live like that,” she adds.
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The Metropolitan Police says it has issued four separate police appeals and continues to appeal for witnesses to come forward with information.
But it says the response so far has been “minimal”.
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“We know from reviewing CCTV from inside the park that many people were filming on the day, and these videos could hold crucial information for us,” says DCI Alison Foxwell, who is leading the investigation.
“We urge anybody with footage to contact police on 101 with the reference 01/621769/24 as soon as possible,” she adds.
But Ms John-Francois holds others accountable.
For much of his life, Rene had been in care.
His mother admits she wasn’t always able to support her child in the ways he needed.
“I put my hands up and say that I was young, I was 15. I could have done a lot of things differently,” says Ms John-Francois.
But she says she believes her son was not properly protected when he was removed from her care. And this, she says, is unforgivable.
“They weren’t as involved as they should have been,” Ms John-Francois says.
“He had no structure in his life. No school, nothing for five years… and down to all of that, he ended up where he was, living the life he was living.”
“They failed him and I need them to take responsibility for that,” she adds.
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A spokesperson for Westminster City Council said: “We do our best in complicated circumstances to help young people as they grow up. We supported Rene over several years and every decision the council made was driven by Rene’s welfare and with his family’s involvement.”
They added: “The loss of a child, in such horrific circumstances, is impossible to imagine and we continue to express our deepest sympathy to Rene’s mother and his whole family.”
But Ms John-Francois says she does not want or need sympathy. Instead, she says she wants to ensure other children at not “failed” in similar ways.
More importantly, she wants her son’s killer found and justice brought.
