Teen jailed after fatal stabbing at Brent Cross Shopping Centre

Bhoniefas Rexson, 19, from Kingsbury, stabbed 21-year-old Gedeon Ngwendema in the chest on May 4 last year.

The “committed” gang member, who appeared in four YouTube music videos, had admitted manslaughter and possession of a knife.

On Wednesday (March 16), he was jailed at the Old Bailey for 14 years with a further four years on extended licence.

Rexson had previous convictions for robbery and having a lock-knife and Rambo-style blade and at the time of the killing he was on bail on suspicion of murder, the court was told.

Bhoniefas Rexson has been jailed. Credit: Met Police

Judge Anthony Leonard QC said the violence came after Rexson told a friend at Wormwood Scrubs prison he was looking for a knife “for the ride”.

The teenager searched the internet for a shop selling knives and, less than 35 minutes later, had one tucked into his tracksuit bottoms in the busy shopping centre.

The Thugs For Life gang member came across the victim, who was associated with the rival A9 gang, outside a JD Sports shop “by chance”.

During a brief confrontation, Mr Ngwendema was stabbed in the chest, with the blade piercing his heart and he stumbled towards Marks and Spencer when he collapsed and died.

He was heard by shoppers to say: “I’ve been duked (stabbed). Someone get me an ambulance.”

Rexson ran back into JD Sports and, when detained by security guards, claimed it was “mistaken identity” but after his arrest he dropped the knife down a drain at a police station, from where it was recovered.

Gedeon Ngwendema died after a stabbing in Brent Cross. Credit: Met Police

Judge Leonard said Rexson was a “committed and active” member of Thugs For Life and operated the gang’s Instagram account, which featured people with guns.

He also ran a Snapchat account and featured as a named artist in YouTube music videos with violent lyrics.

Rexson admitted manslaughter by loss of control because he was in fear of being attacked.

Judge Leonard told him: “I accept you have been subject to attacks in the past with serious violence – this is inevitable as a gang member.

“There is no evidence the deceased was responsible for that violence.”

The judge sentenced Rexson to 10 months in jail for possession of the blade to run concurrently with the manslaughter sentence.

He ordered a charge of murder to lie on court file, after the lesser plea was accepted by the Crown.