UK police hunt motive in Nottingham attack as friends mourn student athlete victims

LONDON -- Police worked Wednesday to piece together details and the motive of a knife and van attack that killed two 19-year-old students and another man in the English city of Nottingham, as friends and family remembered the two younger victims as talented athletes with a passion for life.

Nottingham University students Barnaby Webber and Grace Kumar were stabbed to death in a street near student housing before dawn on Tuesday.

Police say a 31-year-old suspect also killed a man in his 50s more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, stole his van and ran down a group of pedestrians. Three people were hurt, one critically, in the hit-and-run.

The slain owner of the van was Ian Coates, a school caretaker. His employer said he was a “beloved and respected” staff member at a Nottingham primary school.

The rampage unfolded over about 90 minutes across a large swath of Nottingham, a university city of about 350,000 some 110 miles (175 kilometers) north of London.

Nottinghamshire Police released more details of the attacks on Wednesday, saying a man matching the suspect’s description tried to enter a care home after the two students were stabbed, but was kept out by residents.

Police subdued the suspect with a stun gun after he abandoned the van, and detained him on suspicion of murder. Police said they believe the attacker acted alone, and were working with counterterrorism officers to try to establish a motive. The attack has not been labeled terrorism by the authorities, and police are investigating issues including the suspect's mental health.

The BBC and other U.K. media reported that the suspect, whose name has not been released, is originally from West Africa and has lived legally in Britain for many years and did not have a criminal record.

Britain's interior minister, Home Secretary Suella Braverman, said police were “working flat out to establish the full facts and provide support to everyone affected.”

“They are currently keeping an open mind as to the motives behind these attacks but I can confirm Nottinghamshire Police are being assisted in their inquiries by counterterror police, though this does not mean that it is currently being treated as a terrorist attack," Braverman told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

A Nottingham University graduation ball scheduled for Tuesday evening was canceled, with many students gathering instead to light candles for the victims during a vigil at St. Peter’s Church.

“It is hard to find the words to express the shock and grief felt across our institution at the senseless loss of two first-year students who have had their bright futures brutally curtailed by a seemingly random act of violence," said university Vice Chancellor Shearer West.

Kumar was in the first year of a medical degree, and Webber was studying history.

Webber’s parents and brother said he was “a beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to.”

“A talented and passionate cricketer, who was over the moon to have made selection to his university cricket team,” the family, from Taunton in southwest England, said in a statement.

“Complete devastation is not enough to describe our pain and loss at the senseless murder of our son.”

Kumar also played cricket and had played field hockey for England youth teams. Woodford Wells Cricket Club near London said she was “a fiercely competitive, talented and dedicated cricketer and hockey player” who was “fun, friendly and brilliant.”