Terrifying moment Marques Walker, 17, brandishes sword before knifing Jermaine Cools, 14, to death as he’s jailed
THIS is the terrifying moment a teenager brandished a sword before knifing a 14-year-old to death.
Marques Walker, 17, was today jailed for life for the murder of Jermaine Cools, 14, in Croydon back in 2021.
Cops have shared CCTV footage showing the moment Walker plunged a huge zombie-style blade into his victim during a fight near West Croydon rail station at 6.40pm on November 18, 2021.
It came just a month after Walker was released on bail after being caught with a blade on a bus.
Tragic Jermaine’s parents last night called for mandatory jail sentences for anyone caught with a knife as Walker became the first teenager to be jailed on live TV for murder.
Jermaine’s dad Julius said: “Jermaine was a kid with his whole life ahead of him. I wish it was me, not him.”
DRILL RAP
Walker was jailed for life at the Old Bailey after pleading guilty to Jermaine’s murder.
County Lines drug mule suspect Walker showed no remorse for stabbing Jermaine to death during the fight between youths.
In drill rap lyrics found in Walker’s cell while on remand, he mocked Jermaine’s grieving mother and boasted of leaving his victim for dead.
Jermaine’s retail worker mum Lorraine Dudek and restaurant owner dad Julius said they face a lifetime “existing in pain” over the loss of their son.
Dad Julius, 49, blasted the weakness of the law which freed Walker to kill.
He said: “If that boy had gone to prison, he would never have killed my son.”
Shocking CCTV images released as an anti-knife crime warning by police with the blessing of Jermaine’s family, show Walker plunging a huge blade into the victim.
Walker is seen pulling out a large knife from under his jacket and lunging at Jermaine with the blade as the victim rolled on the ground trying to avoid being stabbed.
The bloodthirsty brute is then seen on film running from the murder scene with the huge blade outstretched in front of him.
Two members of the public helped Jermaine into a car and took him to Croydon University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
A special post-mortem examination showed Jermaine had been stabbed seven times and died from a fatal wound to his chest which pierced a lung.
ZOMBIE KNIVES
Walker, then 16, went on the run from his home in Bromley, South London, and was arrested six weeks later when cops went to a house looking for another wanted suspect.
They found Walker hiding behind a bed but he initially gave a false name. He was arrested over another unconnected matter and then owned up to his true identity.
Images of gruesome Zombie knives previously confiscated from Walker were also issued by police on Tuesday.
Walker was on court bail at the time of the murder after being charged with having a Zombie knife on a bus in Croydon on 16 October 2021, a month before murdering Jermaine.
It was the third time he had been caught with terrifying blades, which police believe he purchased online.
Walker was convicted for possessing an offensive weapon in January 2020 – while aged just 14 – after being found with a 10in Rambo knife at school and given a non-custodial sentence.
Then on April 12, 2021 he was arrested in Welywn Garden City, Herts, and charged with possessing two horrific knives, one with a jagged blade and the other a long, curved machete-type weapon.
Walker, then 15, was suspected to have been working for a County Lines gang and also charged with supplying crack cocaine and possessing and acquiring criminal property.
That’s how you beat someone up
Marques Walker
But that case was later dropped against Walker, whose lust for violence continued even after he was arrested for Jermaine’s murder.
It can be revealed that while in Feltham YOI, Walker and other young cons beat a fellow inmate unconscious by raining kicks to his head and stamping on him during an exercise yard fight.
Walker was heard to say, “Finish him off” as he was being pulled away by guards last July.
Walker boasted as he was being taken back to his cell: “That’s how you beat someone up”.
The victim required life-saving surgery for a brain injury and Walker admitted causing grievous bodily harm to the prisoner.
While on remand in the young offenders’ jail, vile drill rap lyrics written by Walker about Jermaine’s murder were found in his cell.
He boasted of leaving the teenager “deceased” and “spleeching”, meaning unable to speak.
Walker also wrote: “We had mummzy grieving. I had mandem looking at his wounds like s*** den I think I’m bleeding.”
Det Superintendent Richard Vandenbergh, who led the murder investigation, said of Walker: “He is someone who doesn’t think of the consequences or value life.
“Walker’s one violent individual.
“He was able to obtain knife after knife.
“Anyone seeing the pictures of those police seized from him in the months leading up to the killing of Jermaine should be concerned that weapons like this seem so readily available to young men.
“These zombie knives are only manufactured to maim and kill.
“It was a horrific event that should never have happened.
“Jermaine was the youngest person to lose their life that year as a result of knife crime. We cannot ignore the fact that children are dying on the streets of London.”
FAMILY DEVASTATED
Jermaine’s mother Lorraine, 36, who works for H&M, said: “Young males are being caught with knives and released back on to the streets to kill somebody.
“It’s literally like they get caught with a knife, the knife gets confiscated, within an hour they’ve located another knife on Snapchat or social media.”
Lorraine said sentencing for possessing knives was inadequate.
She went on: “A lot of this starts from the home because I trained my child not to walk with a weapon.
“I never wanted him to be responsible for ending someone’s life. I instilled it into him.
“He used to tell me, ‘Mum, if you don’t walk with a weapon, you’ll get killed’. I told him ‘no’.
“Ultimately, I paid the price because my son was taken by a knife.”
She backed police stop and search, saying: “As a parent, when Jermaine got stopped and searched, I was never upset. I was happy about it because it reiterated what I told him.”
Lorraine went on: “We don’t live any more, we just exist in pain. When he (Walker) took Jermaine, he took our lives.
“Our family home used to be filled with love, laughter and happiness. It is now just a sad and empty house filled with suffering.
“Jermaine’s bedroom remains untouched and ready for him to come home just as he was supposed to on the night.
“It is now a place where we go and sit to be surrounded by his possessions, smell his scent and think about our happy memories of him.”