A driver who used his car as a weapon to target e-bike riders has been jailed for life with a minimum of 30 years after killing a 16-year-old boy who happened to be walking along the pavement in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Zulkernain Ahmed was driving on the wrong side of Staniforth Road in the Darnall area of Sheffield on 4 June last year when he struck Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Taleb with such force that the teenager was thrown into the air. Abdullah, who was entirely uninvolved in the dispute that had brought Ahmed and his brother to the street that evening, died later in hospital.
Sheffield Crown Court heard that Ahmed and his brother Armaan had driven to the area specifically looking for La’rome Divers, who had been riding an e-bike with two others — one on a moped and another on a second e-bike — as part of a dispute over e-bikes. Jurors were shown footage of Ahmed’s grey Audi colliding with Divers, knocking him over a hedge, before ploughing into Abdullah, who was walking along the pavement entirely unconnected to the confrontation.
Prosecutors described Ahmed’s use of his vehicle as a deliberate “weapon” and said Abdullah was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” as an entirely innocent bystander. Ahmed had admitted manslaughter but was found guilty of murder at Sheffield Crown Court in February, according to Sky News. He was also convicted of causing Divers grievous bodily harm with intent and attempting to cause GBH with intent to two other unidentified riders.
His brother Armaan Ahmed, who was travelling as a back-seat passenger in the vehicle, was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 17 years.
