London, (Samajweekly) The 31-year-old suspect in Nottingham attacks, which saw three people including a British-Indian teen, stabbed to death on Tuesday, has been identified as a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Nottingham.
Valdo Amissao Mendes Calocane, presently in police custody, is a dual Guinea-Bissau/Portuguese national, and had settled status in the UK through his Portuguese citizenship, the BBC reported on Friday. He graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Nottingham in 2022.
Police have been granted another 36 hours to question Calocane, held in connection with the murder of students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley Kumar, both 19, and school caretaker Ian Coates.
The Nottinghamshire police said in a statement that a team of detectives is continuing to question the suspect and building up a strong picture of what happened on June 13.
“This has included CCTV gathering, forensics, eye-witness accounts and searching a number of properties in the city,” the police said, adding that the families of all victims are being supported by specially trained officers.
“We are still working alongside Counter Terrorism Policing and keeping an ‘open mind’ on the motives behind these attacks,” a Nottinghamshire police statement read.
Meanwhile, mothers of Webber and O’Malley Kumar urged the city to “hold no hate” at an emotional vigil on Friday. Thousands of people gathered in Nottingham’s Market Square to pay their respects to the two students and Coates.The vigil came a day after thousands of students paid tributes at the University of Nottingham, where Grace and Barnaby studied.
