The owner of a barber shop that was twice confronted by a man wielding a knife has questioned whether the Huntingdon stabbing attack could have been prevented, had the police taken his concerns seriously.
It comes as members of staff at his barber shop came face-to-face with the man believed to be responsible for the stabbing rampage, which saw 10 people taken to hospital for injuries.
“We didn’t really comprehend until days later that we could have been victims,” says Ibrahim Wanas, owner of Ritzy Barbers.
CCTV images capture a man stood outside the barber shop on Friday evening, before he makes his way inside, waving a knife around and terrifying members of staff and clients in the shop.
Members of the Ritzy team could be seen running towards the back of the shop, in an attempt to get away from the man with the knife.
“I am very proud of them because they did handle it in the best possible way,” says Ibrahim.
“Because if they had acted in any other way, would it have turned out differently? Would he have lashed out at them for maybe speaking back to him?
“It was just a shock because everyone was caught off guard.”
The British Transport Police says it is now trying to establish whether three separate incidents that took place in Peterborough before the attack are linked.
Ibrahim says he was not in the shop during the incident on Friday evening, and received a phone call from a member of his team alerting him to what had happened.
“I actually thought the boys were trying to wind me up because of the sort of relationship we have in the shop… and it was Halloween,” he says.
But he says he realised it was “serious” by the member of staff’s tone of voice.
“So I rushed to the shop straight away,” he says. Ibrahim says after checking on his staff and reviewing the CCTV, he called the police around 90 minutes later.
But as the suspect was no longer there, police did not attend, until the following day – when the alleged attacker returned.
By the time Cambridgeshire Police arrived 20 minutes later, he had left, and it wasn’t until Sunday, two days after the initial call, that police attended in person to review the CCTV.
“That’s when I think they kind of realised that it could be the same person. And we ourselves realised that, well, it could have been us in that situation,” says Ibriham.
“I feel like we wasn’t taken seriously.”
“That does weigh quite heavy on us as a team here, because we feel like if they had taken us seriously, would they have stopped the guy? And would the guy have been in custody? Something that sits on us because the police didn’t come fast enough to respond,” he adds.
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Following news of the incident in Huntingdon, Ibrahim closed the barber shop to give his staff time to process what had happened.
However, despite reopening, he says he fears some of his team will be “constantly watching over their shoulders” when he would rather it remained a “safe haven” for men in the community.
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Ibrahim says he is determined not to let the incidents cause division. It’s why he is establishing a project called the Ritzy Foundation, designed to help young people and build pathways into entrepreneurship, hoping the shop could also serve as a catalyst for change.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said: “This matter was already referred to the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) but did not meet the threshold for a referral. Our internal review continues into any potential incidents relating to events on Saturday.
“The investigation into these offences now sits with the British Transport Police.”
