An innocent (white) commuter was stabbed to death by a (black) teenager after accidentally bumping into him at a bus stop, a court heard yesterday.
Timothy Smith, 38, had stepped back to read the electronic timetable.
In doing so, he blocked the path of Rickell Patterson, then 16, who was cycling along the crowded pavement on his BMX bike.
Enraged, Patterson pulled out a kitchen knife and plunged it into Mr Smith’s chest before riding off, leaving him bleeding to death in front of dozens of onlookers.
The 3inch blade punctured a lung and vein. Mr Smith, a freelance journalist, died later that day in hospital.
At Nottingham Crown Court yesterday, Patterson, now 17, was sentenced to life and ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years in jail after being convicted of murder.
Last night Mr Smith’s family called for tougher sentencing for knife crime.
His brother Chris, 42, said: “Every time I look at a knife, a small knife, an ordinary knife, I wonder was it like this?
“It haunts me. He was touched by pure evil that day and we are the ones serving the life sentence.