He grew up around the corner from the South Kilburn estate, in an apartment where his twin brother practiced violin for hours a day. That same year, he also threatened someone with a knife for the first time, and saw his first stabbing. “I was in a youth club, and someone right next to me just got poked up, blood all over the floor, boom, boom, boom,” he said. He began spending more time on the South Kilburn estate with his friends, partly to escape his mother’s glare. At one court hearing, he joked with his lawyer about the books he should read in prison.

Source: New York Times June 27, 2021 09:00 UTC