Mother whose son, 14, was killed in London bus stabbing said she was scared every time he left home
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The mother of killed teenager Kelyan Bokassa said what happened ‘feels so surreal’. The mother of a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death on a bus in south-east London tearfully spoke of how the police told her what she was “fearing the most”.
![[Ms Bokassa holding a photo of her son and a teddy bear]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/15/WhatsApp-Image-2025-01-08-at-14.53.52.jpg)
Teenager Kelyan Bokassa died shortly after being attacked on a 472 double-decker bus on Woolwich Church Street at 2.30pm on Tuesday. His mother, Mary Bokassa, told The Independent: “Every time I go into Woolwich I see police officers investigating a stabbing. I guess it is just my turn now.
![[Ms Bokassa said her son pictured, was a ‘generous young boy’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/15/mary3.jpg)
“It feels so surreal and it’s something we tried to avoid. I did my very best to prevent that. “I could never relax when he was out, my heart skipped when he left through the door. I just go to bed and wait for him. And that’s where I was when I got the knock on the door and the police told me what I was fearing the most.”.
![[He wrote in a child’s scrawl ‘I love you mum’ in her lipstick on the balcony wall last year]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/15/mary1.jpg)
A manhunt has been launched to find Mr Bokassa’s killer but no arrests have been made so far. Detectives say they are working “at pace” to find those responsible. Paying tribute to him, she said that he was a generous young boy, who wrote in a child’s scrawl “I love you mum” in her lipstick on the balcony wall last year.
![[Ms Bokassa said what happened ‘feels so surreal’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/15/mary4.jpg)
Through tears, she said: “I couldn’t even be angry at him. I will always keep this here. He was taken into care when he was younger and he fought to come back to me. “He was generous. When I gave him money for his birthday he would spend it on flowers for me. We had just got a puppy and they had bonded so well he was even asking me to adopt a little sister.
![[A police officer on Woolwich Church Road which is cordoned off as part of the investigation]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/09/70d89443-3a0d-4722-8f1e-d26cc4ba70d8.jpg)
