Teen robbers in school uniform stab Brighton shopkeeper (From The Argus)

Teen robbers in school uniform stab Brighton shopkeeper

11:31am Thursday 4th March 2010 in News

Baby-faced armed robbers stabbed a shopkeeper in the arm as they made their way to school.

The uniformed raiders pulled a knife on Sayed Mohaiz Shah after he gave chase yesterday morning.

Mr Shah, known as Mo, followed the young robbers after they filled a rucksack with tobacco they stole from his shop, Preston Foods, in Preston Drove, Brighton.

The 30-year-old, who wrestled one teenage suspect to the ground, was left nursing a 2in stab wound to his arm.

He said he had first confronted two teenagers when he thought they were acting suspiciously as he stacked shelves at the back of the shop just after 8am.

Mr Shah, of Ditchling Road, said: “I asked them both to stay where they were and they wouldn’t.

“I grabbed the second one outside and the first one came back at me with an 8in kitchen knife.

“He held it up to my face and said, ‘Let him go or I’m going to stab and kill you’."

Mr Shah was struck and fell to the ground but did not realise he had been stabbed until later.

As the youngsters ran off towards Havelock Road, Mr Shah jumped into his van and chased them.

He saw two suspects climbing a wall into the garden of the Preston Park Tavern in Lucerne Road and pulled one to the ground, holding him there until police arrived.

Mr Shah said: “I didn’t notice I had been stabbed until the police came. I was determined to get them. I wasn’t thinking aboutmy own safety at all.

“Even when they threatened to kill me I just wanted to catch them.

“They were young, just teenagers and wearing Patcham School uniform.

They might have just been kids but anyone, whatever age, can still be lethal.”

A 40-year-old passer-by who was walking his children to school, saw Mr Shah, who he knew from the shop, outside the Preston Park Tavern.

He said: “We could see Mo in the beer garden with these two guys.

“It was brave. Most people would freeze up.”

Tony Tregear, deputy headteacher at Patcham High, said: “I am appalled if any of our students has been involved in this type of incident and we will do anything we can to co-operate with police.”

Sussex Police said they had arrested two male youths aged 13 and 15, both on suspicion of robbery and grievous bodily harm.

Officers found a knife in a garden near the Preston Park Tavern.